Let's Get Out Of Here
by Mariann's
Summary: GoF - Graveyard - Harry plays his strengths and thinks on his feet. Pairings H/Hr and SB/RL, non graphic slash for second pairing.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: What if…

… Harry had played out his greatest strength when he and Cedric landed in the graveyard in Little Hangleton? IMHO, Harry's greatest strength is his ability to think on his feet, which he has displayed several times in the books before. He has the element of surprise here.

It is a Hermione/Harry story, and Hermione will be a bit more active and forthcoming than her canon character would be.

**Chapter 1 – Let's get out of here!**

„Wands out, you reckon?" asked Cedric, looking tense.

"Wands out and stun anything that moves," Harry recommended grimly. "I don't think that this Portkey was part of the Tournament. If at all it should have transported us to the start of the maze, not to some strangely dark and unknown place."

"I think you're right."

Harry was weak on his injured leg, but the unexpected transportation to such a strange place alerted him, especially when he noticed someone moving towards them. Harry panted, still high on adrenaline from the path through the maze, but already highly on call for possible dangers that were still on their way. He was sure that this side-trip was not a part of their assignment.

"Stunners at the person there immediately!" Harry repeated in a whisper.

"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!" both of them cried.

They both cast their stunners until they were sure that nothing moved anymore on the other side. They lit their wands, approached their opponents and as soon as he recognised his victim, Harry blanched.

"That's Peter Pettigrew! And this ugly bit of living thing is Voldemort, Cedric… we have to get back to Hogwarts… and we have to take Pettigrew with us…"

"Pettigrew? You can't mean the Pettigrew that was supposed to have been killed by Black?"

"Sirius never killed him and he never killed the Muggles either," Harry retorted a bit impatiently, "It was all this piece of shit in front of us. He's actually a Death Eater and my godfather is innocent. We just need this guy here to prove that he is innocent. That idiot of a Minister wouldn't believe us a year ago when we told him it was all wrong. But how do we get back?"

"Let me think… what could they have wanted from either of us?"

"Oh, there's no doubt they wanted me. Someone must have turned the Cup into a Portkey. Which explains why the two other champions were taken out… they were cheated by the person who turned the Cup into a Portkey so I would make it to the Cup. They would have probably tried to take you out, too, but my help kept you safe. Explains Krum's actions to me. I'm quite sure he wouldn't have done this on his own."

"Right, I can see that. But what would they have wanted from you?"

"Voldemort wants to kill me. But look at him, he was but a spirit and now he's got some kind of a body again…"

"Maybe they wanted to use you to help You-Know-Who to a new and complete body?"

"By the looks of it, probably."

"We can try if the Portkey goes back to Hogwarts, usually they're spelled to be round-trip," Cedric thought aloud.

"Yeah, we can try in any case, but we have to do it both at the same time again and also put some bit of skin of this one on it, I need him to have my godfather's name cleared. Do we leave Voldemort here?"

Cedric shuddered visibly. Even a stunned Voldemort scared him half to death.

"We should kill him right here…"

"I dreamed of him…" Harry said quietly, and then he remembered the snake. "Who knows if he doesn't have his snake somewhere around here. That one should be killed even before him; he uses her to feed him with her poison. We're not in a hurry, no one else seems to be here, and we can always stun them again and again. Let me think…"

Harry dared to call the snake in Parseltongue.

"Come to me, Nagini, come here…"

It didn't take long before a huge snake slithered around the nearest gravestone. Cedric listened in terrified fascination to Harry's hissing and caught his breath again, when he saw the snake.

"A ssspeaker iss calling Nagini? And it's not my master?"

"I AM your master now, Nagini… what was your old master's intention here?"

"To ussse Harry Potter's blood, bone of his father'sss, and flesh of his ssservant'sss and create hisss new body."

"Thank you, Nagini; it is kind of you to inform me. What did he want to do once he was in possession of his new body?"

"He wasss going to call hisss unfaithful and brutish ssservantsss, to punish them and reign sssupreme over them again."

"Wonderful. Cedric, Stupefy!"

Harry stunned the snake. Cedric helped, once he noticed that she wasn't out of it at once. Then Harry turned to his co-champion, who had been standing next to him, watching him with fear clearly written in his eyes:

"Nagini told me that Voldemort was preparing a ritual potion to give him a new body using my blood, bone from his father's grave and flesh from one of his servants – Peter Pettigrew I'd expect. We're probably in this graveyard because his father must be buried here. I'm not sure we can even kill him right now. We'd best kill off this snake though. She's a bit too familiar with him."

"It's really lucky you can understand snakes, Harry!"

"Not that anyone believed me that it's just a gift, not the sign of a dark wizard, when I was in my second year. Dumbledore said I probably got it from this bastard here when his curse touched me," Harry replied with a bitter undertone.

"Don't worry; I think we all know that you'll never be a dark wizard, Harry! I'd be very proud if we can part from this as friends!"

"We're already friends, Cedric. At least, I hope we are," Harry said warmly.

"Thanks, Harry! Of course we are! – The only way I know to do something like this would be to cut off its head… the spell is "diffindo". We could also use the Reductor curse…" Cedric suggested.

"Reductor is what I'd suggest," Harry prompted.

"Okay. Both of us?"

"Yep. That will make it stronger."

Both pointed their wands and cast the curse. The snake was torn to shreds immediately. But as soon as the life left the snake, a scream erupted from the dead body as Cedric had never heard before. Once the screaming was over, Cedric said:

"Ewww! That was awful!"

"Horrible… and you know what? This was eerily the same scream as the one I saw and heard when I destroyed Tom Riddle's diary two years ago."

"You mean you actually saw and heard that before? Who is Tom Riddle?"

"I did! Remember, two years ago, when all that craze about the Chamber of Secrets took place? It exists and I found it, because I am a Parselmouth. I was able to open it and killed the monster in there. It was a basilisk, which Tom Riddle, another Parselmouth, had discovered 50 years ago and used to kill a Muggle-born girl back then. You might know her ghost, Moaning Myrtle. That Tom Riddle later became Lord Voldemort. I think we should bring these two back to Hogwarts as quickly as possible. We really could use Fawkes now…"

"Fawkes?" Cedric was too speechless to be able to inquire how Harry could know all these things about Hogwarts, about which Cedric himself didn't even have the shred of an idea.

"Dumbledore's phoenix. He's able to carry enormous loads and transport them instantly."

A flash of fire and a soothing trill announced the firebird! Fawkes landed right on Harry's shoulder. He began to trill and sing into Harry's ear and brought a big smile on the boy's face.

"Fawkes! You heard me?"

The bird bobbed his head. Cedric stared at it, stunned by its beauty and said:

"Wow, Harry, do you think he heard you?"

"Most probably. He's very clever, aren't you, Fawkes?"

Again a nod from the bird.

"And he understands every word we say, Cedric. He's a great friend. I'm quite honoured that he likes me!"

"Pleased to meet you, Fawkes. Can you help us and these two back to Hogwarts?"

Fawkes confirmed that, too.

"We need to hold one of them each, then Fawkes will take us back… but let's take a good look at the place first, I'm sure Dumbledore would like to have a description and the memory," said Harry.

Cedric was amazed how Harry took the lead in this strange situation, in which they had landed. He was two years older than the other boy, but he felt like Harry was much more experienced than him. But, he concluded, if Harry really did find that Chamber of Secrets and killed a basilisk then he would probably be more experienced. Cedric did not know all the details, Dumbledore had held those back, of course, but he had heard enough rumours and seen him on the Quidditch field and now in the tournament enough to know that most of those rumours about Harry's accomplishments were probably true.

Harry didn't need to tell Fawkes to take them to Dumbledore, within a few minutes they arrived safely back at Hogwarts, at the entrance of the maze. They faintly heard an outcry from all the people in the audience. They had been gone for no more than fifteen minutes.

Dumbledore reached them first. He helped them stand up and Harry said quickly:

"Cup was a Portkey, Professor. Took us to a gravesite. Pettigrew and Voldemort waited for us, but we were able to stun them both. Killed Voldemort's snake Nagini after she told me that they were preparing a ritual potion to bring Voldemort back into a full body. There was one hell of a scream as she died, which didn't sound like a snake's, Professor, it looked and sounded exactly like the one I heard when I destroyed the diary two years ago! Didn't know if I should kill Voldemort directly, Professor, here he is and here's Pettigrew! We can clear Sirius' name!"

Fudge had reached them and heard the last two sentences. He blanched. Voldemort was here? And in a form, in which he was unable to attack them all?

"You-Know-Who? Here? Preposterous! You must be out of your mind, boy!" he shouted.

"I'm not. Here he is!"

Harry pointed to the lump of meat lying in front of him, still stunned. Right next to him was Pettigrew, who was recognised by a good many people. A circle was forming around the boys. Many people started to whisper loudly about Pettigrew. Cedric remembered something though and when everyone's attention was on Harry, he asked Dumbledore:

"Professor, who put the Cup in its place in the maze?"

"Professor Moody… but Alastor would never… - Oh, thank you, I just had an idea. I'll call Minerva to take care of you and this here for a few minutes…"

Minerva McGonagall took her superior's place for a short while. Dumbledore was looking over the crowd around himself and found Alastor Moody. He cast a quick stunner over the man.

"I'll be right back, Minerva."

Dumbledore levitated the stunned Mad-Eye over to Pettigrew and Voldemort.

"Are you mad, Dumbledore? Moody is certainly a bit paranoid, but I'd never think he's a Death Eater!" Fudge protested.

"I probably am quite a bit mad, Cornelius, but in this case I suspect Polyjuice Potion. We will have to wait for a while until the potion wears off. Then we'll know who transformed the Cup into a Portkey. It was him who placed the Cup in the maze, so he's the likely suspect to have charmed it to be a Portkey."

"Ah, you are right. What about the bloke who looks like Pettigrew? Couldn't he be Polyjuiced?"

"Polyjuice only works if the person you want to represent is alive. Were Pettigrew really dead he couldn't be represented by someone else. Would it be possible, then the Death Eaters would have undermined our society much sooner and would have been much more successful. But I know of no such case. We will have to question him under Veritaserum. But I'm afraid that here's your proof of Sirius Black's innocence after all. He claimed that Pettigrew was still alive and in hiding…"

"Do you mean to tell me that you believed Black? Did you help him to get away?"

"Of course I did. I could not let you order the Dementor's Kiss to being given to an innocent man, Cornelius; it would have made you a murderer. It was enough that he suffered in prison for so long without a proper trial for any other reason than to be in the wrong place at the wrong moment."

Fudge flustered and tried to justify himself, but Dumbledore told him to wait and see.

"First we need to get this business here concluded. We need to take them all into the castle and into a dungeon. We have enough to separate them all three. If this one here is indeed polyjuiced he will turn back in less than an hour. Harry and Cedric should be looked over by Madam Pomfrey and once she gives her go-ahead we can question them more. If possible, I would like to obtain the memories of the event from both of you, Harry and Cedric."

The boys both nodded.

Minerva levitated Pettigrew and Dumbledore took over levitating Voldemort, while Flitwick was quickly there to pick up "Moody", and they brought all three back to the castle. Harry and Cedric followed directly, Cedric helping Harry to stay on his legs. Ron and Hermione came running and helped, too. They were just a few steps ahead of Molly and Bill Weasley who would not stay behind now. There was also Snape, who came along, all the while rubbing his left forearm.

No one even noticed the huge black dog who kept to the shadows once he was sure that Harry wasn't badly hurt. Padfoot sat down to wait for any kind of news he might be able to pick up.

When they reached the castle, the group split up. Molly and Bill took Harry and Cedric to the hospital wing. Dumbledore nodded the others on through a corridor, then a few hidden doors and finally down a staircase to some of the oldest dungeons in the castle. Harry gave Hermione a wink to follow Dumbledore's group. Nobody opposed her presence, so she made herself fairly inconspicuous and silently followed the procedures. And as usual she missed nothing at all.

"We are now entering a part of Hogwarts that's called the Heart of Hogwarts. Only the headmaster can open those doors back there, not even house-elves can pop through. Magic will work for no one else, no one can apparate, not even from one room to the next. Without me, no one can get in or out. It is part of the bonding between the headmaster or headmistress with the castle when they take office," Dumbledore explained.

Even Fudge understood that this was not meant to be repeated outside of their select group. It was something so deeply embedded into Hogwarts that he now also understood how the school could withstand Voldemort's attack on it during his first reign of terror.

Once they had deposited their prisoners in three cells, they locked them magically and went to see who the false Moody was. They were quite shocked to recognise another man who was believed to have been dead for a long time. Dumbledore helped Snape out of the Heart of Hogwarts to retrieve some Veritaserum and, when he was back, the prisoner was questioned.

"I'm in over my head here," Fudge admitted after the questioning. "I'm completely incapable of a move now… what do we do?"

"There is no hurry, Cornelius. First we'll question Pettigrew. We need to know everything we can about this form that Lord Voldemort has taken and what he's done since he has left Albania. we have to know if he is already strong and how we can work from here."

"Can't we kill him right now?" Fudge asked somewhat naïvely, clearly scared out of his wits.

"We could. But this would only destroy his weak body here and he would come back."

"How can he do that if we kill him?"

"The same way he tried it now. at this time he cannot be killed completely and I have a suspicion why, Cornelius, but if I mention that suspicion I'm afraid we won't have the first chance to eliminate him. I need confirmation to that suspicion before I can finish him off. In fact, I think I'll have to keep him alive and stunned as long as I possibly can, because it will be easier to have him with a weak body like this and bound here than as a spirit and free to try to get himself another body. And you will have to trust me. I can't even whisper this to anyone right now. On the other hand he is incapable of doing any harm at this moment. He would be far more dangerous if he were still a spirit on the warpath to regain a body. Right now he is bound in our hands and tied fast to this life in a form of life that doesn't help him at all. You might well remember the phrase of 'keep thy friends close, but keep thy enemies closer'."

Fudge sighed.

"You don't think he's a danger right now?"

"I don't think so, no, but to be sure we have to see what Pettigrew has to say. Maybe he's already alerted other Death Eaters, then we're forced to act. If that's not the case then we can just hush it up and go on as if there was nothing at all unusual; this attack can be attributed to some rogue Death Eater attack from Pettigrew, we don't even have to mention Crouch or Voldemort," Dumbledore said.

Hermione thought he was very reasonable. She was well aware of the panic it would cause if the name Voldemort or Barty Crouch Jr. would only be whispered among the magical society.

"Good, I can live with that. Let's question Pettigrew then," the Minister said with new resolve.

When they reached the cell where Pettigrew had been deposited, Dumbledore cast a spell around the door, which would not let any kind of rodent pass the threshold. Fudge wanted to know why he did that.

"As I said, only I can use magic in here, but I'm not sure that this also goes for Animagi. If he has woken up in the meantime and transformed into his rat form, we could hardly hold him up, but now he won't be able to escape. I have to say that he has an extremely convenient Animagus form. by the way, if he really has transformed then he is truly Peter Pettigrew, because another person could not do this at all. Polyjuice won't allow the imposter to take on the Animagus form as well."

Dumbledore's suspicion was well founded. They opened the cell door and there was no person left in the cell. But the terrified squeak of a rat that was unable to leave the cell because of Dumbledore's spell called their attention to the rodent right in the corner of the door. Dumbledore pushed the animal into the cell with his booted foot. As soon as everyone was inside, they locked the door again. Dumbledore pointed his wand and forced Peter Pettigrew back into his human form.

"Well, hello, Peter. What a nice surprise to see you…" Dumbledore said sweetly.

"D..d..dumble… dore…" Pettigrew squeaked.

"Or not so nice, after all... Yes, Peter, it's me. You probably didn't expect to have to deal with me again, did you? I'm afraid that your flight a year ago didn't help you very far. Severus, please administer the truth potion."

"And do give him one or two drops more," Fudge ordered.

Snape immobilised Pettigrew and put the Veritaserum in his mouth.

"Might have accidentally given him a drop or two more, headmaster…" he said with his usual sneer. "And I'll be willing to testify under Veritaserum myself that I did not have so much as an idea he was the spy and a Death Eater."

"I believe you, Severus."

"But the mutts probably won't..." muttered Snape.

Dumbledore started to question Pettigrew. of course, he asked him first about the night he was allegedly killed and Pettigrew corroborated all of Sirius' claims, which didn't make the Minister any happier. Then he asked him about the meeting in the Shrieking Shack the year before and his subsequent flight. Finally, he came to the questions related to Voldemort:

"Now, Peter, I believe you must have taken care of this form Lord Voldemort took, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"How did you accomplish this?"

"I had to milk is snake Nagini and feed her poison to the Dark Lord. He needs feeding every few hours or his form will perish…"

"Does it have to be this particular snake or will any poisonous snake do?"

"I think it can be any snake, but he gets quite a bit of power from his own snake. Nagini is extremely poisonous."

"Thank you. Did he inform you how he survived his own killing curse?"

"No. He only showed me the ritual I needed to do to get him this form. He claims to be very feeble still."

"Very good, thank you."

They left the cell after a few more answers from Pettigrew regarding the planned ritual for Voldemort's revival and Dumbledore strengthened the charm on the door that wouldn't let a rodent pass. He also had the good idea to use it on the inside of the cell, which would prohibit Pettigrew to transform at all. Dumbledore grinned happily:

"Well, that shows what good a mousetrap spell can do!"

While they walked to the third occupied cell a few corridors away Dumbledore said:

"Cornelius, there is no need for a trial for Sirius; there is only need for a trial for Pettigrew. I do suggest you sign Sirius' pardon tonight. And make sure to mention negotiations for compensation to him. Money won't give him the years back, but it will certainly help his decision not to pull you in front of a panel of judges. He'd have enough reasons to do so. He has been wrongly imprisoned for over eleven years and forced to two years on the run. That's more than most people can stand, thank Merlin he's still sane."

"If he can finally be found…"

"I can do that, no worries."

"I suppose I will have to."

"I'll write it up before you leave. Now let me see about Voldemort. You can stay away if you prefer."

"No, I'll come along. He's unarmed…"

"He has a couple of powers you still don't want to stand against, but I'm glad you do want to join me. Seeing is believing after all."

They went into the cell. The figure on the cot still didn't move.

"He must be feeble if he hasn't woken from a stunner by two students," Fudge grunted.

"Maybe. I wouldn't underestimate him. – Enervate!"

The figure started to stir, but really did seem to be weak. Voldemort looked up and saw Dumbledore. He screeched immediately, but Dumbledore put him in a full body bind.

"I am truly sorry, Tom, but this will be the only way I will talk to you right now. Your ritual has failed. Your snake has been killed. You will not leave this cell except in the direction of your next great adventure, which you so fear. With your capture, the prophecy has been fulfilled. We will keep you alive for a little while, but only just. That is all for the moment. Just be aware that you cannot get away, not even with all the magic in this world. You'll have ample time to think about the horror you are."

In his state Voldemort was unable to get rid of the full body bind. Hermione shuddered as she watched the bane of Harry's existence and when she thought of Dumbledore's vindictiveness. Dumbledore calmly left the cell and locked it securely. He turned to Fudge:

"You can take Pettigrew and Crouch to the Ministry, Cornelius, but I strongly recommend to leave Voldemort here. I will be the only one who has access to him; therefore, I'll have Minerva take over most of my duties for as long as it takes to eliminate this threat in there. As soon as Sirius' name is cleared, he can fill in for her as Transfiguration teacher, should it take longer to fulfil my task. I would like to ask you for two of your Aurors, preferably Kingsley Shacklebolt and Hestia Jones, whom I both know and trust fully to help me with my task. They will have to work in complete confidentiality. For that reason, you won't see them at the Ministry or the Auror Headquarters at all until all is done. Can you agree to this?"

"I will have to trust you. I know you're the last one to let You-Know-Who get away if you can prevent it, Albus. Yes, you can have the two Aurors. In fact, I'll throw another one into the mix, a young one, who is extremely adept at stealth, Nymphadora Tonks. She is trustworthy. You might remember her as a student."

"I do. And I thank you. As far as I know she is a daughter of one of Sirius Black's cousins?"

"Correct. I'll inform Rufus to dispatch them."

"Good. Add her; we'll certainly need all the help we can get."

An hour later, Fudge had a few Aurors in the house and they took Pettigrew and Crouch away. Apart from a select few people, no one knew who resided in a dungeon cell in the middle of Hogwarts castle and those who knew would have bitten off their tongue before telling anyone. In the pandemonium of Harry and Cedric's return no one apart from the people closest to the boys had noticed the lump they had brought along.

Fudge signed Sirius' pardon and took a copy back to the Ministry where he gave a press conference in the middle of the night to have it clearly communicated to the whole wizarding world that Black had been acquitted of his crimes due to the fact that the true perpetrator, Peter Pettigrew, had been caught. He also officially apologised to the French and Russian Ministries for the disruption of the Triwizard Tournament, which he explained with the meddling of a handful of rogue Death Eaters similar to the one that had occurred at the Quidditch world cup in the previous summer. He presented images of Pettigrew and Crouch, further explained that Barty Crouch Sr. had been keeping his presumably dead son under an Imperius curse at his home since he had helped him out of Azkaban as a last favour for his beloved wife. He also stated that the question of Crouch Sr's vanishing a few months before was the subject of another investigation.

Only an hour after that a big black dog that had impatiently waited outside of the castle was let inside and presented with the pardon. A freshly healed Harry Potter and his friends as well as Molly and Bill Weasley were in the headmaster's office, when the dog came in. Minerva McGonagall was also present when Dumbledore turned on the WWN, so that everyone in the room could hear firsthand that Sirius Black was now declared a free man and that the Ministry apologised for the grave error of justice, offering adequate compensation.

"As soon as Mr. Black contacts the Ministry they will be negotiating his compensation with him personally. Anyone who meets Mr. Black is strongly recommended to apologise along with the Ministry."

Sirius jumped out of his Animagus form and totally shocked Minerva. She stared at him, shocked to the bones more about his ability than his presence. Harry leaped up and into Sirius' arms, was enclosed in a bone-crushing bear hug from the Animagus and engaged in a victory dance, before he whispered:

"Oh Sirius! You're free now!"

"Yep, little one, I am. Still want to come and live with me?"

"Of course! Where do we go from here?"

"I'll find a place, pup. First we'll find Remus and then we'll find a new home," Sirius whispered.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

For the first time since his parents' death Harry enjoyed the closeness of an adult. He pressed himself on Sirius, who still held him close, while silent tears of relief and happiness ran down his cheeks. At that moment there was a Floo call for Dumbledore coming in. He answered and said quietly:

"Yes, Remus, he is right here. Come right over!"

A moment later Remus flicked off a bit of soot from his sleeve and stood before Sirius.

"I had a feeling I'd find you here…" Remus said quietly.

Sirius let go of Harry and turned to Remus. Their embrace was a lot more intimate and deeply affectionate.

"We can take our boy home, Moony."

"You're free… it's just so wonderful, Padfoot," Remus choked.

"Yeah, I'm free… - but now you owe us some explanation, Albus! Remus and I don't know what happened. I got the message that Harry brought Pettigrew back from wherever that Portkey took him, but beyond that?"

"One thing after the other, Sirius, before I explain anything further I want to make sure where I left off when I left the maze. Minerva, did anyone think of looking after the real Alastor?"

"Yes. I did. He now rests in the hospital wing and Poppy cared for him. Though we both didn't even want to think about the amount of paranoia he ads to his existing portion now."

"Very good. What about the crowd outside?"

"Has been informed of the joint winning of the Hogwarts champions and has dispersed. Amos and Barbara Diggory are still here, waiting for Cedric. Since Fudge had to go back to the Ministry so abruptly we have given the shared price to Harry and Cedric. Well, to Cedric, Harry has yet to receive his share."

"Thank you, Minerva. That's very well then. Let us say goodbye to the Diggorys first."

Albus did that and once Cedric's parents had left the castle, Cedric was sent off to the Hufflepuff common room. Dumbledore returned to the crowd in his office. He dismissed the Weasleys, but asked Bill quietly to return to his office for some further information. Once Bill had returned, only Dumbledore, Minerva, Remus, Sirius, Harry, Hermione and Bill were left.

"Now. What I have to say is more than highly confidential. It is absolutely imperative that none of this leaves this room. That you all are still here means that I trust you completely. Harry and Cedric have not only returned Pettigrew. Along with Peter, they brought a feeble, but living corporeal form of Lord Voldemort, who is now in a constant full body bind down in the dungeons in a place at Hogwarts where no one can go except for myself or in my company, not even house-elves. I will tell you that much that I am now in the process of researching the methods Lord Voldemort may have used to survive his own killing curse. I already have a few ideas, but none of them is confirmed just yet though something Harry told me when he returned tonight has given one of my suspicions new nourishment. There are several important things to do. Harry, the first one concerns you. This will come as horrible information to you, but it is, at least in part, obsolete since you brought this feeble form of Lord Voldemort back to us. I have to congratulate you for your sheer nerve to actually take this thing and bring it back. Years ago you asked me why Lord Voldemort wanted to kill you. I believe that you are now old enough to know the truth.

"Lord Voldemort was aware of a prophecy that had been given to me and which concerned either you or Neville Longbottom. This prophecy basically said that around your birth date a child would be born that would (not could, *would*) one day vanquish the Dark Lord. Now Voldemort only received the knowledge of a small part of the prophecy. He concluded after you and Neville were born that either of you two would be the one according to the conditions given in the prophecy. He wanted to kill you and Neville before you could become a danger to him. But he didn't know the second half, which would have warned him that eliminating you too early would cost him dearly. What the second half of the prophecy said has become obsolete through your deeds of this evening. I made Voldemort aware of that fact. He strongly believed in the prophecy, because he does not reflect on details and possibilities. He heard the part that said there would be a child born that would be his downfall. And he took this prophecy literally. This is the reason why he wanted to kill you.

"But he isn't gone yet. We can't let him survive, Professor, can we?"

"No. For once I agree that this is a life that must be taken. Unfortunately it can only be taken once we understand how he has preserved it."

"Do you think that it has something to do with those screams I've now heard twice already?"

"Yes, but I do not have the absolute proof yet. - Now there is something else that you have to know. With the failed killing curse, Lord Voldemort has unwillingly created a link between you and him. Your frequent headaches from your scar are proof of that. I believe that for the moment, he might be too weak to attack you mentally, but he unwillingly sends you images, like the visions you had repeatedly in the past school year. Until now he probably didn't even realise that, but knowing Tom he will certainly use you or at least try to use you once he notices this link. Therefore, you will have a very important task and that is to learn Occlumency, an art to protect your mind against such mental attacks. I believe that Remus has a good idea of the subject and he can give you the basic training during the vacation. As soon as you will be back at Hogwarts after the summer vacation, I will personally continue to train you. Do you understand the necessity?"

"I do, sir. Could Hermione and Ron get the same training, please? I need someone to confide in and they will be at the forefront of this with me, so they will need some training, too."

"If Remus is willing to extend this training to them I agree."

"Yes, of course I will help them, Albus."

"Very good. – That's the first part. Now for the next step, I need to count on you, Minerva. Because I'll be much occupied with my task, I will leave my position to you, and you will be headmistress until this task is fulfilled. That means you will not teach for the time being. Will you do me the favour to replace me temporarily? I will still be in the castle, and I'll be available to help if help is needed, but otherwise I will be working on my task. For the rest of the world I'll be on a sabbatical to research something that I'll name still to have an answer to any enquiries. I'll see with the school governors that they will have the necessary knowledge."

"Of course I will do it, Albus. But in this case we are in need of not only another Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, but also a Transfiguration teacher…"

"I believe I have the perfect team right here with us…" Albus said with a smile.

"You can't be serious, Albus! I take Remus back with open arms, but Remus AND Sirius in the castle is calling for chaos!" Minerva protested. "Sorry, Sirius, I know you'd be very well capable, and I really like you very much, but you're a catastrophe on two, or even apparently four legs!"

Bill, Albus and Remus all laughed. Albus said:

"Which will be entertaining for everyone and the perfect distraction from my activities. I also need your combined creative thinking in my work, so I would like to have them both close."

"Besides I'm not going to cause you grief while we're still so badly in peril, Minerva, rest assured of that. Whatever I might do, will at most be embarrassing," Sirius promised. "And – I'll endeavour to spread the embarrassment evenly across everyone."

Hermione and Harry looked at each other, both with big grins on their faces. Harry high fived Hermione and said:

"Can you believe it? We get our favourite teacher back and Sirius on top of it!"

"Should be great fun!" Hermione said, much to the astonishment of everyone who knew how serious she took her schoolwork.

"Spoken like a true Gryffindor, Miss Granger," Minerva said and winked at Hermione that astounded even more.

"I agree. There's a girl after my own heart," Sirius agreed and caught Hermione in a hug.

"Well, that would be the main things for the moment. You children can return to your house. Maybe Remus or Bill could accompany you so you'll get there safely?"

"I'll go," said Remus. "I'll leave directly after that. Are you coming along, Sirius? Or do you still need him right now, Albus?"

"No, it's fine. I'll contact you soon. You'll want to see the Minister and get all your papers in order, Sirius… you have a week before the school vacation begins."

"That will be enough time for me, Albus. I'll bid everyone goodbye then."

Remus, Sirius and the three children left first. Then Bill went home and Minerva was left alone with Dumbledore.

Harry was beaming as he walked next to Sirius. His godfather looked quite happy as well.

"Do I have to start calling you Professor now, Sirius?" Harry wanted to know.

"Don't even think about it! I'll be offended if you do. – Harry, will you tell me what happened tonight?"

"I'll tell you all. Would you mind if I'd like to go and sleep over it first?"

"No, that's perfectly fine. Must have been quite difficult."

"Not the easiest thing I've ever done while we were doing it, Sirius, but looking back I think it was the best thing that could have happened!"

"I quite agree," said Hermione.

"Seeing as it brought me my freedom it would be far from me to say anything else, Pup."

Naturally, they had to cross Filch on their way to Gryffindor tower. Remus informed him that the children came from the headmaster's office and that they were going straight to their house. Filch had to let them go, much to his chagrin.

"Just wait how crazy he'll go once he hears that Sirius will be back in the castle – in an official teaching function on top of that!" Remus said. He was plenty amused.

Sirius looked smug and grinned evilly. Hermione mock-groaned and said:

"Just don't let the Weasley twins know who you really are… you won't get rid of them otherwise. You do remember that we told you how much they admire the Marauders" she warned.

"Au contraire, my dear, it might be good to have some very clever allies. Need to let Snape suffer for a bit…"

"And we'll suffer later on…" Hermione groaned, this time for real.

"Don't worry, Hermione, it's not Snape who will mark your OWLS. Those are independent examiners and they are usually very fair," said Remus soothingly.

"That's at least very good to know."

"There are other things you may consider: No one knows about that ugly thing down in the heart of Hogwarts, only we do. Snape may know or get the idea, but he won't be able to run to his master. Minerva won't be as lenient with him while she's in charge, so complaints about unfair treatment from him will be transferred to the school governors. You're in a better position then, don't you think?"

"Yes, I do! Thanks, Sirius! I didn't even think of Professor McGonagall's promotion. Go ahead then, prank him with everything you've got!"

It was a sign of the changes in Hermione's state of mind since she had started at Hogwarts. From a girl who would never have broken any rule at all she had grown into a young woman of character and conviction, who would do everything to set things right, even if it meant that a few rules had to be bent.

When they reached the Fat Lady, Hermione went ahead and gave Harry room to say goodbye to Sirius.

"Well, Harry. Since I don't really know where and when I'll be around you will have to be patient. Just one thing is certain; I will be at the station when your train arrives in London. I will probably stay at Remus' place until we know where we'll live and that's where we'll start off if nothing else has come up until then. I try to keep you up to date this week, but if you hear nothing you will certainly see us at King's Cross. You will not have anything more to do with your relatives than blow them a raspberry and say goodbye forever."

"I'll have Hedwig pester you for news then. But I guess I'll survive that last week of school anyway," Harry said, grinning.

"Very good. Now follow Hermione and have a good night. See you in a week."

"You too, Sirius! And you, Professor. I'm so happy you will come back to teach!"

"No one's even asked whether I wanted to… you all just think I will do it…" Remus remarked.

"With Sirius here he'll need you to look after him, I suppose," Harry mused.

Remus and Sirius laughed.

"More than you can know, Cub," said Remus.

"What's with the Pup and Cub?" asked Harry.

The two men laughed and looked at each other.

"We'll tell you in a week, when we get home and have time to talk, okay?" Sirius promised.

"Okay. I can't wait! Bye!"

Harry vanished. Once the portrait door was closed, Sirius tried to apologise to the Fat Lady for his horrible treatment of the portrait two years before. She finally succumbed to his charm. Upon which he cheerfully told her he'd be back after the vacation to teach for a while.

"Merlin help us all," he heard her sigh when he and Remus left.

Remus laughed. For the past two hours he had felt a lightness he hadn't felt for many, many years. His heart sang and he was ready to let it all out. He looped his arm in Sirius' and looked at his friend. Sirius' grey eyes were showing a lot more light and some hope.

"Nothing like having this beast under our control in the cave here, what do you think, Moony?"

"I agree. In this form it is definitely a good thing to have. However, I wouldn't want Dumbledore's job to look after it. I hope he doesn't go in there all alone every time."

"We'll have to stay in contact with him on that subject. If he knows something and is the only one who has that knowledge we can't lose him!" Sirius said.

"It would be a dangerous situation. There is obviously something holding him up from killing Voldemort. We know that it will have to be done, there is really no way around it."

"He even admitted that, Remus."

Sirius looked into Remus' eyes now; and stopped talking abruptly.

"Still love your eyes, Moony…"

Remus smiled.

"Yours are looking more alive again, Padfoot."

"Well, I have a life again," Sirius shot back.

"You do."

Remus hardly noticed when he found Sirius' hand and they grabbed each other as they had done so many times before. He only knew that he still felt for Sirius what he had felt fourteen years before. The way Sirius squeezed his hand Remus thought that Sirius just might feel the same for him as well.

They reached the castle's main doors and went out on the grounds. They walked down through the now quiet grounds to the gates from where they apparated to Remus' place.

"Still the same place, Moony?" Sirius asked.

"Of course, Padfoot."

"Let's go home then…"

And home they went. Sirius apparated right into the master bedroom the way he had done so many times before and the moment he felt Remus next to him, he pulled the other man into a gentle embrace. He looked into Remus' eyes again.

"I still love you, you know…" he said, for a moment very uncertain if such a declaration was welcome at all.

Remus gave him the embrace right back.

"I never could stop loving you, Sirius. I hated myself for loving you, but I couldn't just turn it off like a light switch. Nothing's changed as far as I'm concerned."

"That's good then. Let's go to bed?"

"Let's go to bed."

They catered to their most important need first and slept. In the morning, they took care of the second most important need and made love. The next thing after that was taking care of some of Sirius' physical problems, namely his horrible teeth, which Remus was able to revert into a good state. Sirius then smiled at him and Remus reacted by pressing his hands on his chest and imitating a proper swoon. Sirius laughed heartily and asked:

"What say you to breakfast? Anything in the house?"

"Of course. But we will have to go and shop soon, I know that appetite of yours and it probably hasn't diminished since you're almost starved…"

"Need to put something back on my body, love."

"I fully agree. Don't like your behind so bony. Scratch that, I don't like YOU so bony!"

"One of us bony is enough..." Sirius countered.

A full breakfast later, they dressed up. Sirius got one of his old robes back and while it rather hung around his body it still made him look a lot better than what he wore before, although he had got rid of the horrible prison attire while on the run.

"Ah, to have my own clothes again…" Sirius sighed.

"Makes you look like a whole different person, love," Remus whispered.

"Really? Good. Anything but the scarecrow I was in the past years. I really disliked myself, believe me!"

"Wasn't difficult to guess, love. What next? The Ministry?"

"Yep. Then Diagon Alley."

"Okay. While we're there we can do the grocery shopping, too."

They arrived at the Ministry a while later and Remus checked in his wand. Sirius just lifted his hands and declared that he didn't have a wand anymore. They then fell over the Minister and astonishingly found him sympathetic and almost helpful about the compensation. They did reach an understanding.

"You seem to enjoy Dumbledore's trust, Black, don't you?" Fudge asked.

"I do."

"Do you know what it is that forces him to keep this feeble thing alive?"

"No, I don't. Not yet in any case. Probably it means that we *cannot* kill this thing for some technical reason. Most probably he would be able to return again, but then we'd not know again for some time, so it's better to have him alive like that until we can do away with him than letting the spirit get out and start all over again. Dumbledore has a few suspicions, which he wants to follow. You should know that he's an excellent researcher and he shouldn't take too long to find out something. I don't think that you will need to inform the public about the little thing Harry and Cedric brought back with them. No one has noticed and only a very small group of people even knows about it. I would just keep quiet. We'll find a way to get rid of it. Until then we'll unfortunately have to keep it alive," Sirius explained.

"I agree with Sirius. It will be hard, but we'll have to trust Dumbledore to do the right thing. As it is it would only create a panic if you told the public," Remus confirmed.

Fudge sighed.

"Well, I know you are right. And I'm really not afraid that Dumbledore is going to use this against us. I admit that I did think for a moment… but seeing this thing convinced me."

"He wants to find out what needs to be done, before we can get rid of the thing. We'll do whatever it takes and then eliminate him VERY quietly," Remus mused.

"Not without me seeing it!" Fudge threw in.

"I'll tell Albus that you wish to witness Voldemort's final demise. I don't think he'll oppose to that," Remus promised.

"I will admit that it scares me to bits knowing that we have a living form of You-Know-Who among us. But if Dumbledore reaches a means to kill it, I want to be there and see it. I owe that to the people who I represent."

"It scares us at least as much, Minister, but if Voldemort fears anyone then it's Dumbledore. I have faith in the old man to find out the missing little bit, the way it sounds he already has some very solid ideas, knowing where to start searching usually speeds the research up considerably," Remus said.

"Mr. Fudge, I would recommend not even to whisper anything about the thing being around in any form. Not to anyone, not even your wife. No one has to fear him right now, he does not have a wand and he's constantly stunned or frozen in an area from where he couldn't get out and where he can't do any magic. If it already scares you that much, you'll agree that it will only cause a panic in the general population, wouldn't you? The general public believes him dead anyway, we'd best just keep it that way," Sirius suggested.

"Oh, rest assured that I wish to keep this as secret as I can! Don't want to imagine what that Skeeter woman would make out of this thing! Apart from the panic that would be caused in the general public I'd be out of my office before I could say you know what!"

"Exactly. Even more important is it to even whisper anything about him to Lucius Malfoy and other people who managed to escape Azkaban. I've been in there long enough to know that these people have not been forced to join the club, they were doing it all out of their own free will. Believe me, there were many who wanted a go at Lucy's throat in there for being able to stay out of the place!" Sirius advised.

"But... he's been so supportive of our systems... and he's been discharged by the courts," Fudge managed to say.

"Bribe. Pay-off. He's been using you."

Fudge blanched and slumped in his chair.

"Right. I won't say anything for the time being. You are probably right that this would not help if he really was..."

"Minister, just catch his left arm and look at his wrist. You will find a Dark Mark there and if you have a Dark Mark in front of you you have a Death Eater in front of you. Have everyone in the Ministry checked for this and you'll be surprised how many come up. Don't forget to check them for glamour charms over their arms. You should know that this Mark can only be applied by Voldemort himself and those who have it are ALL willing servants to his cause. Malfoy has murdered a lot of people, and by far not only Muggles. No matter what he could spout out at a trial, you would still look a lot better if you stashed him and others away rather sooner than later, because the public would be seeing you as a proactive Minister who takes responsibility. Way better than doing nothing! Just wait for the day you have seen Voldemort eliminated for good. In fact I would like to see Lucy's face when you tell him that we have been able to vanquish the vermin for good. He'll look very, very sour, believe me."

After that, Sirius received the things back, which had been taken from him upon his arrest, a lot that also contained his intact wand. He was delighted, when he picked it up. A shower of red sparks came out of it as it re-bonded with him after so many years of disuse. There was also the key to his Gringotts vault and a few other small things like his purse. The two young men left the Ministry after registering Sirius as an Animagus.

As they started walking through Diagon Alley, they were talked to by lots of people. Some of them had not yet heard or read the news and tried to stun Sirius on the spot, but just then there was a speaker going through the Alley with the information yet again. Many people actually followed Fudge's call for apologies, and from many people Sirius got the impression that the apology came from their hearts, especially the ones he knew from before the crash. The further they got the happier he became and his smile was genuine. Mostly they could move and finally reached Gringotts, to check on Sirius' account. Sirius spoke with the manager, who looked after his family's fortune. The Goblin was surprised and pleased about the respectful way of Sirius' behaviour in the bank. Sirius was given another key to the family vault. One visit later, Sirius knew that he could step into any estate agency and buy a house of almost any size he wanted.

"We could use your family home here in London, could we not?" Remus dared asking.

"No way! Not before it is cleaned and refurbished from top to bottom. Believe me you do not want to even look inside before that's been done! Especially you, my love, because every second thing in there is made from pure silver. No, I'm rather thinking of something detached out in the country, a smallish villa or manor, which would then allow us to find enough space to also invite some friends around at times."

"Well, you're going to pay for it, so who am I to interfere?" Remus replied with a grin.

"That's the good boy, Moony! In the meantime we can have Grimmauld Place renovated and completely updated to modern day living. It would be a great London pad for us. There are tons of other properties, for which there must be deeds in those vaults. Let's pass at Madam Malkin's now."

A good few new clothes later, they emerged from the little shop looking crisp and fresh in their new robes. Sirius thought that Remus looked ten years younger and he fell in love with his lover all over again.

They made another visit to Gringotts, where Sirius looked through his vault until he finally found the deed to one of the properties he had inherited from his uncle Alphard. Back then he was far too young to make good use of it, but now it seemed perfect for them. He beamed at Remus:

"Remus, look, I found it! Do you remember the house Uncle Alphard had built on Jersey Island? Here is the deed! I want to go and look if it's habitable or else get it into shape."

They had to go through all the papers in the deed, but they finally managed to find the unplottable property. It was situated in a quiet corner of the island, surrounded by a little land. They apparated to the island to the address mentioned in the deed and had a look on the slip of paper found in the legal papers, written by his uncle's hand:

"Seaside Manor may be found at no 149, La Grande Route des Sablons in St. Helier on Jersey Island."

As soon as both of them had seen the text, a lovely white manor house shimmered in front of them. They stood on the country lane and opened the high gate that had only just grown out of the edge of the lane. Remus and Sirius walked up to the house, a walk that still took them about five minutes.

"It's lovely, Siri," Remus whispered.

"You know how Alphard always had great taste. I have never been here before. I like it!"

The house had been built in 1933 and was an airy summerhouse on the shore with a huge terrace on the seaside. The two young men looked left and right, then slipped through the gate. Walking up to the house, they noticed that the area seemed to have been looked after.

"Do you think there's a house-elf there?" Remus asked.

"I have no idea, Remus. I know that he did have a house-elf up in London, but he left him to Andromeda, together with his London house, which was sensible - she had the young family at the time."

"I just thought - because this appears to be looked after."

"Yes, I know, maybe Andy sent him to look after the other properties, too… well, we'll see when we get in."

"Yes, that's possible."

They moved forward to the house. A simple Alohomora spell opened the door and they entered. All blinds were shut, but a sweep with Sirius' wand opened them all at once. Light flooded into the living room. They looked around and walked through the house. It was in perfect condition, but one thing was certain: there was no house-elf currently around. All the furniture was cleanly covered with white linens, protecting them from any dust.

"Must have been around from time to time; Uncle Alphard died almost twenty years ago. – I have an idea, Remus. Harry has written to me about a house-elf, whom he freed from the Malfoy family…."

"Never heard about that one. Sounds very much like something Harry would do though. Where are you going with that?"

"Well, let me try to remember the name…"

Sirius thought for a while and after a moment, he said:

"He has a very simple name… Topply? Dorry? No, that doesn't sound right. I wish I had that letter with me now. Oh, no, now I remember, it was Dobby!"

There was a crack and a little house-elf stood behind them.

"Who is calling Dobby?"

Sirius and Remus swirled around.

"You are Dobby? I am Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather. You know Harry Potter, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, Harry Potter's godfather. I have heard about you. What can Dobby do for Sirs?"

"Dobby, is it true that you have no engagement?"

"Oh no, Sir, I am truly sorry, but I have been working at Hogwarts for a time now, Sirs. Professor Dumbledore has been so kind to hire Dobby and Winky."

"Oh, then I would have to speak with Professor Dumbledore? I was thinking I might hire you to keep the house where Harry Potter will come to live," Sirius said slyly.

"Oh, oh, oh, Sir, working for Harry Potter? Dobby would be willing to become a slave again to work for Harry Potter!"

"No, Dobby, you don't need to become a slave again! I will speak to the Professor, I'm sure he'll let you come to us. This would be the house you'd look after. And since Remus and I will go back to Hogwarts you can rightfully stay there as well."

Dobby looked around and said:

"Here is very nice, Sir. Dobby would love to come to work for sirs and Harry Potter. This is sooo much better than the place Harry Potter was living before."

"Fine, we'll call you back soon, okay? You can return to Hogwarts now."

"Can Dobby clean this up? It looks fine, but needs some care…"

"Do whatever you like, Dobby!"

Dobby went off like a fuse. Sirius and Remus grinned and went up to the first floor of the house, where they found four spacious bedrooms, all with access to a long, slim balcony and two bathrooms. The second floor was only about half the size of the rest of the house, but it still contained two large bedrooms and a bathroom.

The kitchen was fine, too. They would only add some modern appliances in the utility room.

"There's even a cellar, but you have that potion now, so a well warded room should do well for your transformations, love," Sirius said.

Remus wanted to protest, but he knew he'd be talked out of it by his lover. He sighed and looked around and together they took care of the dust and the dustcovers, only to be chastised by Dobby when he passed. The perfect setting for Remus' taste was found underneath the white pieces of cloth. A house that seemed to have stood still in the early 1930s, gleaming white frilly lace curtains, art deco furniture, the really grand organic feeling of the turn of the century, art nouveau stained glass doors and separating walls, it was just what he loved. A wonderful mix of fin de siècle to Art Deco styles.

"I hope Harry'll like it as much as we do, Siri. The house is pure art nouveau and the furniture perfect art deco – right up my stylistic alley!"

"I'm sure he won't care too much about the way the house looks, as long as he doesn't have to clean it and as long as there are no Dursleys in it, Remus."

Remus admitted that this was probably the case with a rueful grin.

"Sadly there's some truth in that," he said.

Meanwhile Harry and Cedric enjoyed a good bit of attention and while Harry was very ready to leave the stage to Cedric alone, the latter often pulled him close and basically told everyone how Harry had saved his bacon a few times during their time in the maze.

"Yeah, but you were great in that graveyard, Cedric! You really helped to stun Pettigrew!"

The Ministry, in its interest to keep Voldemort's return under the wraps, had claimed Pettigrew's attempt to kidnap the Boy-Who-Lived to be an attempt to regain the trust of the other Death Eaters who were still running free (not mentioning that Amelia Bones had just received a new order to review the earlier Death Eater trials for possible irregularities, much to her delight, giving her a lever by using Pettigrew as a previously unheard witness). No one looked deeper into the place where Harry and Cedric had ended up, or some might have found a grave with the names of the Riddle family and the one or the other might have concluded that someone else than ordinary Death Eaters had been behind the kidnapping plan. On Dumbledore's advice some Aurors had gone and emptied the whole graveyard of any grain of dust that might still belong to any Riddle.

Harry couldn't wait for the school year to end. The only good thing that had come out of being a Triwizard champion was that he didn't have to participate in the end of year exams. He really wondered what his godfather and ex-professor had been up to in this last week of school. Hedwig had dropped him a little note from Remus, informing him that they had found a good place to stay and that he wouldn't be homeless when he got out of school. They would be waiting for him at King's Cross Station. The nearly fifteen years old boy was still enough of a little boy that it warmed his heart knowing that he would have a real home for the first time since his parents' death.

Hermione was very happy for him as well. As usual she was at the top of the class. Hedwig had happily taken her letter home to her parents that she had finished the best again. She had almost become Hermione's familiar in the meantime as she was Harry's. Whenever Hermione thought she needed an owl to send a message it didn't take long before Hedwig was there to take whatever message she had. It had only occurred to her that in the past few months that had been the case and she usually treated Hedwig extra kindly. When she had mentioned it to Harry he had just laughed and told her:

"She doesn't have much to take for me, so she's probably very happy that someone makes use of her services at all. She's an excellent post owl after all!"

"But you really do well looking after her, Harry."

"She deserves it - she's my buddy and my only true support when I'm at that hellhole..."

As he approached the portrait of the Fat Lady after dinner Harry jumped a little in surprise when he was almost bumping into Hermione. She, too, was surprised to see him there all of a sudden.

"Oh, sorry, Harry…"

"That's okay."

While they entered the common room, they overcame their little moment of embarrassment and talked as they always had.

"You haven't heard anything more from Sirius, have you?" Hermione asked.

"No, but I don't expect to. I know he'll be there at King's Cross station when we arrive. That's good enough for me."

"Do you think he remembered to tell Professor McGonagall? Otherwise she'll still send her letter to your aunt and uncle regarding the arrival of the train?"

"I wouldn't even know. Guess what? I'll ask her tomorrow after the last transfiguration lesson."

He did ask his head of house the next morning at breakfast. She almost grinned when she said:

"Of course he did. But I had already sent the letter and I didn't want to pain myself writing another one. There will be a very smug tabby cat watching when they get trounced by your godfather, child! I wanted to do that myself forever, you know!"

Harry was shocked! His crisp head of house, the professor he was sure he never wanted to cross, the most distanced of all of his teachers, the woman who was so iron hard that most students never got closer to her than just the barest politeness, this woman practically told him that she wanted to shred his relatives to pieces. That was as good as if she had told him straight out that she loved him.

"Professor!" was all he could say.

"Unexpected, isn't it? But you should know, Potter, that your mother has been a very good friend of mine and I had the utmost respect for your father. He was one of my very best Transfigurations students. I was completely against placing you with your aunt and uncle, Potter, but Dumbledore somehow got me around and I didn't have any legal say in the matter anyway. I should have taken you myself. But now you'll be with people who love you both to bits, I can guarantee you that."

"Thank you, Professor..." was all Harry could reply.

When he left, he could have sworn he saw her wink and heard her whisper:

"I can't wait for a little bit of fun…"

Harry wasn't so sure he really wanted to create a great big scene in the middle of the huge railway station. The Muggles couldn't get to platform 9 ¾ unless they had wizard help, so Sirius and Remus would have to intimidate them in the midst of all the people who were rushing about. The only good thing was that this meant they couldn't use magic.

So he reached the end of his journey back to London with some trepidation. He found out that Hermione and Ron were just as eager as the certain cat. They all knew what would happen when Sirius and Harry's relatives met.

"If even Professor McGonagall wants them trounced there must really be something very bad about them," Hermione insisted. "I really hope they get it bad!"

Ron laughed and slapped her lightly on the shoulder.

"That's the Hermione we all love to see… reminds me of the day when you slapped Malfoy."

"Well, they're awful people, aren't they?"

But as they arrived at the station they first had to climb out of the train and organise their trunks and other luggage. Then they looked for their parents and guardians. Hermione just organised her luggage, which she spelled to look like regular Muggle suitcases and bags. She stayed with Harry as he spotted Sirius and Remus in the mass of relatives of the students on the platform. She thoroughly enjoyed seeing Harry's big smile as he approached his godfather. She remembered only too well how every little bit of light and joy vanished from his face as soon as they'd left the train in London in the past three years.

Sirius welcomed Harry with tight hug. While Sirius also gave Hermione a hug, Harry turned to Remus.

"Hello, Professor Lupin!"

"Hello Harry! Please, don't call me professor anymore, I'd like it much more if you could call me by my first name, Remus, or even Moony," Remus said, smiling.

"Okay, I'll do that!"

"And you, too, Hermione," Remus added when he shook her hand.

"Thanks, Remus. So, can I keep contact with Harry by owl while he's with you?" she asked, a bit anxiously.

"Of course you can! You can even come down to Jersey with your parents and visit us, how about that?"

"Oh, it's in Jersey? That's lovely. I'd love to, if Harry wants me to come…"

"Of course I want you to come! I'm usually missing both of you terribly!" Harry said.

The Weasleys approached. Harry turned to greet Mrs Weasley. She almost crushed him when she hugged him.

"Harry! I just heard that you don't have to go back to the dreadful Muggles anymore, I'm so glad!"

"No, I don't. And I'm sure Sirius will let me come to the Burrow for a bit."

"'Course I will, Pup! We're on the Floo, Mrs Weasley, so you can communicate in any case. The Floo name is Seaside Manor. We'll give you the password to travel as soon as you call for the first time."

"Sounds lovely, Mr. Black. You will look after him, won't you? He's been treated too badly in the past. I would rather he'd come to stay at the Burrow…"

Both, Harry and Sirius, and even Remus immediately shook their heads.

"No, sorry, Mrs Weasley, but I really want to be with my godfather now. He's been kept away from me through no fault of his own and I really need to learn to know him better now," Harry said with certainty and added: "And I'm also looking forward to getting my own home. I know I'm welcome at the Burrow, but I'm a guest there and I really want to see what it's like to have a home."

This shot down any words of protest that the Weasley matriarch might have wished to state, but it rather looked like Molly Weasley, for once, didn't know what to reply.

While they started to trickle through the barrier, Molly Weasley saw Professor McGonagall slip past and smoothly transform into her cat. They all met up again and she remarked:

"Has anyone of you seen Minerva McGonagall pass by, too? I just saw her transforming…"

While no one had paid that any mind, Harry, Hermione and Ron all three couldn't hide their grins. Sirius looked at them and asked:

"Seems like you three know something about it…"

"Let's just get on, please, Sirius," Harry said.

Just a few metres later they met up with Hermione's parents George and Helen Granger, who, as Muggles, had to wait outside of the barrier.

"Mum! Dad!" she squealed and ran to embrace them.

Once they had shared a nice hug, Hermione turned back to the others to introduce Sirius and Remus:

"Mum, Dad, please meet my former and future professor, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black, who will also become a teacher of ours next year. Sirius is Harry's godfather as I've already told you in my letters. Harry doesn't have to go back to these terrible relatives of his since Sirius has been officially acquitted."

"Pleased to meet you, gentlemen," said George Granger. "Our little one has already told us lots of stories about you."

"We've heard about you, too. Very pleased to meet you, Mrs Granger, Mr. Granger…"

Sirius, Remus and Harry all shook hands with both of Hermione's parents.

"There you are, you ungrateful brat. Don't lose us our time and come along," they heard from behind Harry.

Sirius turned around quickly and just caught a glimpse of Vernon Dursley roughly pulling Harry away from them by his arm.

"ONE LITTLE MOMENT, VERNON DURSLEY!" Sirius roared.

Dursley swivelled around, surprised, and let Harry go, who jumped out of reach immediately. Sirius approached the large man and looked down on him. Then he grabbed him by the tie, twisted it and pulled it slightly up.

"You are not responsible for my godson anymore, Dursley. My name has been cleared and I can finally take him in and raise him. He's suffered you for much too long."

"Now see here, you can't just come here and take him. The old codger who placed him with us…"

"…does not even have the legal right to say what's going to happen with Harry, because that is MY legal right as I'm his guardian. And I will forbid him to ever get in touch with you again, you miscreant."

Harry shivered. He stared at Sirius and hardly recognised him anymore. Only now he saw how Sirius looked when he was dressed in fine clothes of excellent material. He had gained a little weight, but with his almost two-metre stature, he towered over the short, fat man, who had to look up to meet Sirius' flashing eyes.

"You… you… you dare…" Dursley didn't even have anything to reply.

"I dare telling you that I will have an investigation on your treatment of my godchild, Dursley. I may be a wizard, but I know your world well enough to know that it is strange how it could have gone unnoticed that a child has been mistreated for most of its life by its guardians. If there's the slightest hint at anyone in your family having beaten the child, you will go to jail, Dursley, just so you know it that there will be a charge and you will be torn in front of the court. The best you'll get away with, Dursley, is a really heavy fine! A really heavy and hefty one. Because I know that your kind is hit worst by your purse. And now do not come near my family anymore, is that clear?"

Sirius dropped Dursley who lost his balance and fell on his bum, then he turned around and didn't spare the man one glance anymore. He put his hand softly on Harry's shoulder and said:

"Let's go, son, we have a nice little trip to get to your new home."

They started to bid their goodbyes to the Weasleys and the Grangers. Hermione stepped up to Harry and gave him a peck on the cheek, which made both of them blush, but she said:

"I'll be in contact, Harry, just send Hedwig now and then, okay? A letter on her leg wouldn't be unwelcome either. She's welcome at our house and garden."

"I'll write, Hermione, don't worry. I'll be seeing you and Ron, too!"

"I look forward to that, Harry!"

The Weasleys bustled out of the station, together with some other wizarding families, who trickled out of Kings Cross now. Sirius watched how Dursley left the station with a very red face and said:

"Well, the three of us need to move down to the Underground then. Unfortunately we have to go to my old family home to be able to Floo to our new place."

"You are from London?" Harry asked.

"My whole family is. They have property all over the country though, and they're also big landowners. Let's get this behind us."

They took the trolley with Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage and moved down to the Underground station from where they drove to the stop nearest to the Black ancestral home. The only time Harry had ever ridden the Underground had been when Hagrid had taken him to Diagon Alley for the very first time. He didn't get to enjoy it for a very long time, because they arrived at their destination soon. Remus surreptitiously shrunk Harry's trunk and they took off on foot.


	2. Chapter 2 Home

A/N: I was extremely pleased with the reception of this story. I hope I can cope with your expectations after all that praise for the first chapter.

Here's the next chapter - Hermione and Harry will get action now!

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Home!**

"This is Grimmauld Place, Harry. You won't see the house no 12 immediately, just stare at the gap between houses no 11 and 13 for a moment and it will come to view. Muggles do not see it at all. The house itself is unplottable, and it has strong Notice Me Not charms around it. Here we are…"

Harry was reminded of optical illusions, but he got to see the house after a minute or so. It seemed to him as if the houses no 11 and 13 were pushed away and the house no 12 was placed in the space between them by an invisible giant hand. Sirius led him to the front door, which was of an ugly green and had a snake's head for a doorknocker. Sirius touched it with his wand and it opened. The inside was very, very dark, only lit by feeble gaslights that sprang to light as they entered.

"Euurgh, Sirius, that's awfully gloomy in here," Harry remarked.

"Awfully gloomy and probably very loud in just a moment…" Sirius sighed as he ushered his godson inside.

Remus followed and closed the door. Harry held Hedwig's cage and stepped forward shyly. Sirius looked grim all of a sudden, and then Harry heard the most horrible voice he had ever heard. It screeched from a portrait of a very ugly woman in full life size, which hung prominently in the middle of the entrance hall.

"Oh, shut it, mother, no one's listening anyway. I just wish I could take you down…" Sirius sighed.

"Can't you shut her up magically?" Harry asked.

"No, can't. And I can't take her down either; she's stuck to the wall with a permanent sticking charm. Not for the lack of trying…"

"Is there paint or panel underneath?" Remus asked.

"Panel. You see? The whole entrance hall is panelled…"

"Well, all we have to do is to tear the panelling down. That would take care of the portrait as well, as the sticking charm only works between the painting and the panel, not the panel and the wall." Remus suggested, smiling.

"You know what? You're brilliant, Moony."

Not caring for the continuous screeching Sirius used Diffindo on the panels to separate them and the sticking charm from the wall. The painting crashed down to the floor.

"Bad luck for you, dear mum, you'll be burnt right now! That's going to be easy with the old dry panels!"

Sirius levitated the painting further down the corridor, through the back door and into the garden, where he set it on fire to burn down completely. Harry and Remus followed him. He looked around the garden and said:

"If only I was a bit more of an Alan Titchmarsh, then I'd bring this thing back to glory. It was supposed to have been very lovely once."

Back inside they took Hedwig's cage again and went to the fireplace.

"Harry, it's Seaside Manor. I'll take Hedwig's cage, if you prefer and go first, okay?"

"Yes, please! I have a history of not landing where I was supposed to. Though I do think that I'm beyond that now."

"There's another story in there, I suppose, isn't there?"

"Yep. Fun one though!"

"Wanna hear when we talk..."

Sirius vanished. Harry went next and Remus apparated. The difference between the house from which they came and the one where they arrived couldn't have been greater. While the London place was dark and dingy, Seaside Manor was flooded in the afternoon sun of the southern coast of Jersey Island. Harry came out of the fireplace and blinked, blinded by the sun that streamed through the huge windows of the living room. He stepped away from the hearth and looked around.

"Wow!" was all he said for a moment.

Sirius and Remus stood next to each other and smiled.

"Like it?" asked Sirius.

"He said 'wow', Padfoot, why do you ask?" Remus teased.

"Well, this living room is really something!" said Harry.

"View on the sea is great, isn't it? I loved it the moment I saw it first," Sirius replied and started to tell Harry all about his uncle, and how the old man had loved the sea and the light, too.

"I thought you would, Sirius, you talked about that in your letters last summer…"

Soon they sat on the sofas and armchairs around a coffee table and Sirius still talked. Then one thing led to another and Sirius told Harry about his dreadful family and how he was lucky that Harry's grandmother was his own great-aunt and how she took him in when he was forced to leave his home.

"So you see, pup, I know all about having a dreadful immediate family. Auntie Dorea was the anchor I needed then. I still miss her very much, because she was a really nice person. One of the few in my family. You can imagine how they reacted when I was the first Black sorted into Gryffindor. Almost all the others were Slytherins. A few Ravenclaws came up, but never any Gryffindors."

"What's with the 'pup'? And Remus has called me 'cub'…" Harry asked, still confused about that.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other, but they smiled.

"It started on the day of your birth, Harry. Remus, Peter and I were all there and when Peter held you, he almost dropped you. Remus, who was nearest, caught you just in time and soothed you, then he growled at Peter to kindly **not** drop the cub. He's a werewolf, wolves' babies are cubs, I'm a dog, little dogs are puppies, so it just stuck in a moment that you were the cub for Remus, the pup for me, we've both always seen a son in you, Harry."

Harry smiled, too. Now that he knew the context, he didn't mind being called that. But then he noticed the glances Remus and Sirius still shared. Remus took over.

"There's more to it, Harry. Sirius and I – we're a bit more than just good friends. We've been in love with each other since we were in school. We're a couple."

Harry was floored. He had to wrap his mind a bit around the fact that this meant his godfather and former teacher not only shared the house but also their bed. He swallowed once or twice, then he asked:

"Did mum and dad know that?"

"Yes, of course they did. Our friends all knew. Those who counted anyway," said Sirius. "I hope you're okay with it, because it's very important for us, we really need each other."

"Well, why should I criticise you? It's none of my business, is it?"

"It is, too, since you're now living with us, because it makes living together much easier if you don't mind. We want you to be happy, Harry, and we want all the facts on the table, no secrets. There will be more things we'll share with you, don't think we're holding back, it's just that there's so much we don't always know where to start."

Here, Harry was much more interested. He had asked his headmaster for the reason why Voldemort was after him, but had been shot down until after the third task. Dumbledore had claimed he wanted Harry to have a normal childhood, even when Harry pointed out that his childhood had been anything but normal. So would he now receive answers for the first time in his life?

"So you'll let me ask questions and you'll answer them?" he reassured himself.

"Ask and we'll answer what we know, we won't lie to you and if there's something we really cannot say then we'll state why. In the magical world there are always possible oaths in the game, which may interfere," Remus confirmed.

"What's it with this prophecy?"

"Voldemort knows a part of it and believes it. We'll tell you the exact wording, but only once you've mastered Occlumency. It is a means that will allow you to keep your thoughts and feelings secret from mind intruding magic. As you know it's Dumbledore who wants you to learn, but we think it's a good thing, because it will also allow you to protect yourself from Dumbledore's own Legilimency."

"And what's that again?"

"That's the usual method of attacking anyone's brain. Occlumency on the other hand is the art of protection against Legilimency."

"Do you mean to tell me that Dumbledore uses that on me without my knowledge?" Harry asked, outraged.

"If he's talking about things where he says he's sure someone tells the truth you can guarantee he's just been rummaging around that person's mind thoroughly. His problem is – and that's our advantage - he thinks he can overcome all Occlumency efforts, but a really good Occlumens can look like he's not using any Occlumency at all. The true Occlumens is giving him exactly what he wants to see."

"Can you teach me that?"

"I can," said Remus.

Ever since Remus had been able to teach Harry the Patronus charm, which for all intents and purposes was supposed to be very difficult even for powerful adult witches and wizards Harry thought he would be able to teach him everything he wanted and so he trusted Remus. For a few minutes Harry sat there, not saying anything.

"That's an ugly thing – about Dumbledore," Harry remarked quietly.

"A bit less of a hero and saviour now, is he?" Sirius asked gently.

"I trusted him! But now I'll constantly wonder whether he's reading my thoughts! What about my innate right to privacy of my thoughts? To my healthy body and mind?" Harry groused.

Sirius nodded and then warned:

"I expect that he thinks you're more than just a precious child, Harry. No one is perfect. Dumbledore is used to getting a lot of leeway and that everyone looks up to him as a perfectly good man. The truth is a bit less nice. He uses people as puppets where he can – he thinks it's for the Greater Good, but sometimes he calculates cold and hard to reach his goals, which often have quite little to do with the Greater Good. He would have sacrificed you if you hadn't reacted as great as you have, Harry! Well, maybe he would have cried a few crocodile's tears for the rest of the public. The fact that you kept your cool and stunned the two ugly brutes forces him on another course now, of course also because Remus and I have the power to stand up to his decisions regarding you. In fact he cannot make any decisions regarding you without consulting us. Whatever he wants you to do or offers you when we're not around you can refuse until you've talked about it with us. We will actually see that you aren't alone with him, because it's always possible he uses other spells on you if he thinks he needs to, spells, which you won't notice, because they're used non-verbally. He's a master at those. You are allowed to ask for another adult to be present whenever you meet Dumbledore, be it one of us, or Minerva, for example. I'm pretty sure that Filius would also stand by your side at any time, he seems to like you a lot!"

Harry smiled and said:

"He was absolutely thrilled about my Accio charm at the first task."

"He had reason to - it was amazing that you managed to call your broom from this far away. You could have easily put it much closer than your dormitory without cheating, you know!" Remus replied.

Again, Harry thought for a while. He noticed that neither Remus nor Sirius pushed him to say anything and found that he loved them all the more for it. Then he thought of his friends:

"What about Ron and Hermione? I don't want to keep secrets from them, at least not from Hermione as she's perfectly capable and interested to keep them. I need my friends and they will have a hard time to stay friends with me when I have to tell them all over the place that I can't tell them this or that. Could you teach them as well?"

"I promised, and I'll hold those promises. Especially since we were burned badly ourselves from keeping too many secrets. But maybe it would be better to keep some stuff for yourself, Harry," Remus said, weighing his words.

"Keeping too many secrets has cost my parents their lives, Remus, and you your partner," Harry said in a low voice.

"You know, he's right about that, Moony," Sirius threw in.

"Yes, I suppose you are, Harry. The problem with this prophecy is that it's not only Voldemort, who's after it. His Death Eaters would love to bring the knowledge about it to him. We can't be sure they don't know he's back now, at least their actions at last year's Quidditch-World Cup proved that they're not quite so clueless."

"But he's been captured and I'd like to see the Death Eaters getting to where he is," Harry argued.

"That's right, but you are still in danger right now, Harry. There are quite a lot of Death Eaters still walking around who have never paid for their crimes," said Remus.

"Let me guess: Lucius Malfoy…"

"He's certainly their leader. Fudge thinks he's clean! He's been tried, but found not guilty, because he claimed to have been a victim of Imperius, though I'd bet he's bought himself out of it. Same with a few others, Avery, Nott, Goyle, Crabbe and Macnair to name but a few. I've heard that in Azkaban," Sirius confirmed.

"Malfoy's bought the Slytherin team all new brooms in my second year, so that Malfoy junior could join the team as a Seeker. – What does that mean for me?" Harry asked anxiously.

"That we'll not venture out very often until we know for sure that the other Death Eaters don't know about Voldemort's attempt of creating himself a new body. Here on the island it shouldn't be much of a problem, but we'll refrain from going to London too often. This fireplace here has limited access and when your friends come here they'll have to use a password. It can be used for talking, that function we've kept public. We also installed a small handful of direct connections, but very few. The easiest way to get here by floo is through Grimmauld Place. The others are to Hogwarts and to your two best friends' residences."

"Don't some people know about your old home, Sirius?" Harry wondered.

"No. Not anymore. We've passed there last week and took care of the crazy old house-elf who was still there, so the house is now truly completely empty. Good that we were able to eliminate mother's portrait, too. Not that one would have activated her from down in the kitchen, but still… she's been a bloody nuisance. My cousin Narcissa would know, but she probably hardly remembers where it is and with the notice-me-not charms around the building she'll probably push the boundaries of her intellectual capabilities. Dumbledore thinks of adding a Fidelius charm in the next days, which will make it near impossible for anyone to get inside. Unless the Secret Keeper tells them. I agree it's a good idea, because the house can become a good shelter for a good amount of people."

"So what happens now?"

"We'll enjoy whatever we can from your school holidays, little one. You can have your friends over or visit them. We'll help you with your homework if you want, and you'll be trained in Occlumency. That plan suit you? We'll talk again about the Voldemort business as soon as school starts up again in September."

Harry grinned. Apart from the Occlumency training it all seemed perfectly normal for once. Harry craved nothing as much as normalcy.

"Great!"

"Well, then let's go and set you up in your new room. You can even choose one," Remus said with a grin.

"Wow! That's real luxury."

"No, that's what you deserve, Harry, nothing less and nothing more."

The two young men led their godson up the stairs to a landing, from which a long corridor ran to both sides.

"There are four bedrooms on this and two more bedrooms on the next floor, Harry. Remus and I occupy the master bedroom down here," Sirius explained and opened the door to a splendid room. As it was south west facing the light flooded it and Harry admired the lovely large bay windows, of which there were two with a door to the terrace between them. Sirius pulled him inside and to the door. When they got out, Harry could see that the terrace ran along the entire house, using a part of the reception rooms below.

"This is huge!"

"Yes, it is. The balcony runs above a small part of the front of the library, the living room and the dining room. And of course, there's the even larger terrace downstairs. As you can see we have direct access to the seashore. This is a small private beach down there. If you turn and look up you can see that the two rooms above have a small balcony, too."

Harry looked and loved the small balconies, that looked a little like a crow's nest.

"Can I have one of these?"

"If you like – let's have a look at them."

Sirius and Remus smirked. They actually had prepared one of the two top rooms for Harry, because they had expected him to like those best, what teenager wouldn't like a room like that? Both rooms shared a nice and newly fitted bathroom, which lay between the two rooms. As they reached the top floor, Remus opened one of the doors and admitted:

"We were actually going to suggest one of these two rooms for you, Harry, what do you think of it?"

Harry went inside and looked around. His mouth fell open. It was just the nicest room he'd ever seen, enough of a room for a child and already growing young adult, too. There were some Quidditch posters on one of the walls. Harry looked closer and recognised the Holyhead Harpies and Puddlemere United. He grinned. No Chudley Cannons in **his** bedroom for certain! Further inspection of the room made him smile, because he could detect how Remus must have had a hand in the decoration. The wooden walls were painted in a warm beige with a feature wall where the posters hung painted in Gryffindor red. The bed took a good part of the room away, but there was a nice desk in front of one of the two bay windows and a window seat in the other. Floating shelves along the wall where the bed stood left a lot of space for whatever Harry wanted to place there.

"I love it…" he whispered.

"I'm glad you do. But if you want to change anything, just tell us, we can do it," Remus said.

Harry shook his head. This was the first room he could remember getting as his own. He knew that Remus and Sirius had been thinking of him when they decorated and furnished it. The beige/red theme suited him very well and he looked forward to placing the content of his trunk onto the shelves and the desk.

"No, nothing needs to be changed. It's great as it is. Are these your favourite Quidditch teams?"

"Sirius is flying the flag of the Holyhead Harpies. I'm more into Puddlemere…" Remus admitted.

"Do you know that Oliver Wood was taken on there as reserve keeper last year?" Harry asked, smirking.

"No, I didn't. Was he, really? That's great! He certainly is a passionate player as far as I could see last year."

"That's the first name. Yes, he was."

"Well, then we had better get your stuff in here, if you like the room. We have a little surprise for you, too, Harry. – Dobby!" Sirius called.

"Master is calling Dobby? Oh, Master Harry Potter sir, Dobby is so happy to see you, sir, and Dobby is so happy to be your servant now… Dobby will be a good house-elf for Master Harry Potter sir…"

Harry was flabbergasted. He looked at Sirius, but with a glare mixed into his wonderment.

"You didn't enslave him again, Sirius, did you?"

"Hell, no, even though he was ready enough for that, just for you! He's paid as he is at Hogwarts."

"Oh, well, okay. Mainly because Hermione would have my head if you did. Or even yours, you know! She's big into freeing house-elves."

Sirius chuckled.

"Good thing I've engaged him properly then, eh? Wouldn't want to cross Hermione, would we? She's a good mixture between Minnie and Lily."

"Minnie?" Harry asked.

"Sirius always called Minerva Minnie, Harry. She hates it – at least that's what she says, but I think secretly she loves it when Siri does it."

Harry laughed.

"I'm sure everyone else would be transfigured into a toad or something!" he mused.

"Well, maybe not that drastic, but I'm sure I can remember the phrase: 'Detention, Black!' Merlin knows I've heard it often enough…" Sirius made a long-suffering face.

"Yeah, I can imagine that now," Harry wheezed. He was still laughing from the image of McGonagall being called by any nickname at all. After all he knew that she was a very strict person.

"Oh, she's a great big softie, deep down; you just have to know how to bring that up, Harry. We played her like a well tuned violin, believe me, in spite of all the detentions," Sirius said proudly and fluently changed his facial expression to nonchalant.

"Sadly I have to admit that that's completely true," Remus confirmed.

Harry didn't quite believe Remus' innocent face. It started to dawn to him that Remus may have been the most dangerous of the four Marauders!

"I think it's priceless! You'll have to give me hints!" Harry demanded.

To his utter dismay both Marauders nixed that request instantly.

"No way! She'd know in a heartbeat where you got the methods from and would become the same hardened woman to us! I like my Minerva nice and pliable, thank you very much," Sirius said, but he still laughed.

"You'll have to find out yourself, but you're resourceful, Harry, you will know how. Even knowing that she's not as tough as you think will help you," Remus added.

Dobby had followed their conversation, but now he shook himself and popped away to bring up Harry's trunk. As he started to unpack it, Harry intervened:

"Thanks for bringing it up, Dobby, I'll unpack myself. I would like some time to think where I want to put everything."

"As Master Harry Potter sir wishes."

"And, Dobby, for the umpteenth time: call me Harry!" Harry said in desperation.

"You heard Harry, Dobby, that's an order! He doesn't like to be called Master."

"As Master Sirius wishes. Is that all then, Master?"

"Yup, Dobby, thanks! Dinner soon?"

"Yes, Master. Would in half an hour be alright?"

"Perfect."

Harry started to unload the trunk. Sirius looked at his clothes in disgust and said:

"Trip to the nearest shopping mile tomorrow to get you a new wardrobe, Harry. Apart from the robes this is entirely rubbish you have!"

"I know. They wouldn't give me any new clothes; I wouldn't even have dared to ask. Not even when I learned that I had a vault at Gringotts and how much was in that vault did I dare to buy new clothes. They'd have found out about it and I probably wouldn't call a single Knut my own anymore, if they had so much as an inkling that I have money, Sirius. I'm sure their dislike of magic wouldn't have kept them at bay at the scent of money."

"Crikey. What yucky people! No wonder Lily never wanted anything to do with them," Remus threw in.

"I can imagine how mum wouldn't have liked them. Aunt Petunia couldn't stand mum either."

"So - shopping trip tomorrow okay then?" Sirius asked.

"Very much okay," Harry confirmed.

"Throw everything out right away, Harry, I'll give you something much nicer tomorrow, which we'll shrink to fit you"

"Will do."

"We leave you to your unpacking then, Harry, okay? And when you come down you can contact your friends to tell them where and how you arrived."

"Great!"

Just before the announced dinnertime Harry came back down and asked:

"Can I Floo Ron and Hermione?"

"Yes, of course. We have contacted Hermione's parents and had a Floo connection installed there. A direct one, which can't be intercepted either, just in case. Same as the connection to the Weasleys, the other two are to Grimmauld Place and to Minerva's office at Hogwarts. We didn't want the press to learn where you are staying over summer to give you the best possible privacy."

Harry smiled and went to hug both, first Sirius and then Remus. No one had ever cared that much about him and it made him feel wanted and loved, for the first time in his life. Remus held him close and whispered:

"We're both so angry, how you could have been so mistreated? They almost expect you to sacrifice yourself for them, but none of them is ready to care for you! Sirius and I will be here to keep up your spirits and love you for whom you are, not what you are. We both know what it means to be an outcast, Harry."

Harry looked up to him, tears blinking in his eyes.

"No one's ever done anything for me just to show they care, only Hagrid and Hermione and now you two."

"What about Ron?" Remus asked.

"After he was a complete and utter prat when my name came out of the goblet? He only cares for himself at the end of the day. I've learned my lesson where Ron is concerned. Third year he did nothing but egg me on to be mean to Hermione and do stuff I shouldn't have done. The twins are much better friends and more reliable ones to boot," Harry said.

"In spite of what Mrs Weasley says, her twins have their hearts in the right place, Harry. It was actually a pleasure to teach them. Pomona and Filius like them, too, and even Minerva likes them, I think she likes them in the same way she liked the Marauders. I was actually welcomed warmly at the school, it was just Severus who made things difficult for me," Remus explained.

"Yeah, I think Mr. Weasley thinks they're alright, too, and that's good enough for me," Harry said, smiling. "When they took that flying car to come and get me away from the Dursleys all he wanted to know from them was whether everything had worked as he wanted it to work."

Sirius laughed. From what he had heard about Fred and George Weasley so far he could tell that he would like the two boys a lot.

"I'll ask them to come on over as well, Sirius, you'll get along famously with them. They love their mischief and you two belong to their top heroes, but I know if anything happens I can count on the both of them. They really stood by me during second year when everyone else believed me to be Slytherin's heir... in their own comical way, which I have found annoying back then, but afterwards I saw the humour. I'll still be Ron's friend, but definitely not as close anymore and maybe I won't include him in anything that has to be kept a secret."

"That's coming suddenly, Harry. Did something happen in the last week of school?" Remus asked.

"Not much. He's held back, but it was clear that he was annoyed that I was at the centre of everyone's attention again. It's not like I can help that, is it? And he knows exactly how I despise being fawned over. I would be happy if it was **him**, because it really annoys me. He doesn't even have the first idea how awful that is when everyone's after you!"

"No, he doesn't, but it seems like he would like to be famous. He'd be one of those really awful celebrities..."

"Just like Lockhart, you mean? He'd be exactly like that. And even he hated Lockhart for that, believe me. As I said, he doesn't even have an idea! I need friends who are ready to believe me and listen to my arguments. They say that Gryffindors are brave and loyal - well, he definitely gives loyalty a new meaning. And let me tell you that abandoning me is one thing, but the way he most often treats Hermione is even worse. I think he regards her as his personal homework service centre and beyond that she's just a worthless know-it-all. Sometimes he's as much of a pureblood bigot as Malfoy, just meets Malfoy at the other end of the circle."

"You still would like to hang on to him, wouldn't you?" Remus asked.

"In a way. He was the first one I could regard as a friend. The first one of my own age who took me for who I am and didn't put me down for one thing or other."

"What if you thought of the coincidence that he was there at all? It could be Neville, it definitely is Hermione. You can make many other friends, Harry; I know how highly you're regarded with many of the other students. Some of them see the Boy-Who-Lived, that's for sure, but many more would jump on the chance to learn to know you for yourself."

"I just don't know how to recognise sincerity, Remus. I have too little experience in these things."

"I know. I still want to curse the Dursleys to smithereens knowing what they have done to you. They have destroyed so much in you that I only recognised you in the Hogwarts Express because you look so much like James. I hope you can pick up how to open up and listen to those who give you good advice. You fell for lazy Ronald Weasley, but you wisely stuck to Hermione Granger..."

"I know that I can always listen to her."

"But not exclusively. I recognise a lot of myself in her, but she still needs a dot more independence and a dot more rebellion to be well rounded. Her heart certainly sits at the right place as does her brain."

With the discussion it was a bit too late to firecall, as Dobby had their dinner ready. They ate and talked and it was fairly late when Harry finally found his way up to his new room. He passed at the bathroom and returned to his new haven. He already loved the room and closing the door behind him he felt peace and quiet coming to him. He knew he would hang up other posters and things with time, but for now, for starters this was a great room as it was. He felt the love and sympathy from Sirius and Remus who had poured it into every piece of the furniture and decoration. What he didn't know was that they had also put a very strong cheering charm on his pillow, which was supposed to aid him to sleep peacefully.

In any case he didn't mind to get some good night's sleep. The happiness he felt at getting out of his relatives' 'care' helped a lot in that regard. He had expected more nightmares, but if he had any dreams they had stayed in his subconscious. Another thing he didn't mind at all. Harry got up early in the morning and decided to have a look out of his window. He discovered that he could easily fit a chair on his little balcony and enjoy some sun outside. The view was breath-taking. Somewhere ahead of him was the French coast. The sun was already coming up, its first rays around this side of the house tickling and warming him nicely. There was almost nothing to hear except for the water lapping on the shore of the island, some seagulls and other birds and the buzzing of the first insects. Ships silently moved into the Channel on their journey to or from the North and East Sea ports. He could see quite a good number of them in the distance.

Harry looked down to the shore and the little beach that belonged to the house. As he didn't know whether he would be allowed to go out alone he stayed on his balcony, but in the next moment he wished he could be far away from it when he heard something he'd never heard before. It was a moan, almost like someone was in great pain. To his astonishment it came from an open window just below his balcony. And then he heard a short scream, muffled immediately and Remus' voice, laughing.

"Come on, Padfoot, you don't think he'd be already awake! He's a healthy teenager!"

"I don't know, but – oh, don't stop that, love, just don't bloody stop..." and another moan followed.

"I won't, love. I love you, sweetheart."

After that Harry had fled his little balcony, back into the room, with a red face. He had finally understood what the moans meant and wondered whether they always did it in the morning. And whether he should ask them. That thought made him grin. If they could embarrass him he could just turn the tables on them now, couldn't he? It would be fun to see them blush and start to stutter.

Harry went to the bathroom and got dressed. He looked at his old, horrible clothes and was thankful that Sirius was going to take him shopping today. He ran down the stairs (hoping they'd hear him and knowing he *had* already been up) and came to the dining room, where he found Dobby, laying the table for breakfast.

"Morning, Dobby!" he greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning, Master Harry. Would you like your breakfast now or do you want to wait for Masters Sirius and Remus?"

"I'll wait for them, I'm sure they won't be long, Dobby. I'm going to call Hermione on the Floo."

Harry moved on to the living room, where the fireplace was nice and free standing. He lit a fire with his wand and threw in some Floo powder, then he called the Grangers' residence. He was lucky, as Hermione answered within a minute or two of his call.

"Harry! How was your trip?"

"Morning, Hermione! It was fine, thanks. This is a great place here. I got a lovely room up on the top floor and when you come to visit you're getting a very nice room next to mine. Only the bathroom we have to share."

"Wow, that's great! What are your plans for today?"

"Clothes shopping. And before that – embarrassing Sirius and Remus. They thought it opportune to shag right next to the open window. Loudly!"

"What?"

"Oh, of course, you don't know that yet. They've told me that they're a couple."

"Really? Well, I think it fits. Remember how they hugged in the Shrieking Shack?"

"I do, now that you mention it. Listen, this place here also has a telephone; do you want to give me your number again? I could call you on the regular phone, that's a bit less uncomfortable."

"Great idea, I give you my new mobile number. Though here I can see you, which is nice, too. Apparently I can also come through there?"

"Yes, according to Sirius you have a direct connection and just have to have a password. You'll have to talk to him to know how exactly that is to work."

"Will do. Have a great day out shopping, Harry!"

"What are your plans?"

"Homework first."

"Don't you rather want to take that along over here so we can do it together? I think we'd have better resources, too. They tell me that there's a small library in the house, too."

"Oh, that's a good idea. I'll do that! Then I'll probably go for a bit of shopping myself. I have outgrown most of my summer clothes and will have to get a new bikini for sure. You're close to the shore, aren't you?"

"We're right on the shore. This house even comes with a private beach!"

"Wow! It sounds grand!"

"It's lovely. Six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a grand living room and dining room and the library. Really nice little garden, too."

"That sounds like a wonderful home."

Remus entered the living room and saw Harry talking with Hermione.

"Good morning, Hermione!" he called over and: "Good morning, Harry! You're up early..."

"Early enough to hear things I shouldn't hear," Harry teased.

"I told you we should have set up a silencing charm, Moony," Sirius said with a grin as he came inside.

Harry and Hermione snorted.

"Yeah, alright, I get the message. – Did you have breakfast already, Hermione?" Remus asked.

"No, I was just about to go and make it for myself. My parents have already left the house."

"Well, come on over then. Your house and this one are connected directly. The Floo name is Seaside Manor and the password is Mr. Perfectly Billowing Robes is an ass."

Harry and Hermione snorted again. Wasn't this typical for Sirius to use his despised classmate's name in a derogatory form as a password.

"I hope he never hears of that, Sirius," Harry said, while he gallantly left some space for Hermione to come through.

"Oh, on the contrary, I hope he has to come here once, so he will have to use it," Sirius replied with an evil grin.

Harry and Hermione both shook their heads, but it got them all laughing as they walked to the dining room for breakfast together. Harry made a detour through the kitchen to tell Dobby:

"Dobby, we have a guest, can you make one breakfast more – with tea, please."

"Yes, Master Harry. It will be out in a minute!"

They had hardly found a place on the table when Dobby already came running in with everyone's breakfasts. Hermione rang her mum to inform her of her current location.

"Hi mum! I've made use of that new Floo connection with Harry, Sirius and Remus, so I'm spending the day here in Jersey."

"Not bad, hey! Are you anywhere near the beach?"

"Directly on it in fact. What's more I'm just fed breakfast! We'll do some shopping afterwards and then probably some time on the beach. I'll be home for or after dinner, is that alright?"

"That's fine with us. We're having our late day today, so don't worry. But I would like to meet the people you're with some time soon, to get to know them a bit better, would that be possible?"

"Yes, I'm sure it is. I'll organise something, okay?"

"Great. Have a lovely day then, sweetheart. I'm glad to see you're out there in the sun with people than having you just bury yourself in the library at home. Say hello to them for me, will you?"

"I will. Have a good day, too, mum!"

Hermione closed her mobile phone and grinned:

"I have carte blanche to stay the whole day – and probably any other day I'd like to stay as well! I think as long as they see me in the evening they'll be happy. Mum wants to meet you guys..."

"Well, invite them for the weekend then. There are enough bedrooms to put them up. We'll fetch them on Friday afternoon and then they can stay over until Sunday," Sirius offered.

"That's a super idea, thanks, Sirius! They'll love it here! They're completely in for that seaside charm and all. And the style here will be right up their alley, too. We have a whole living room with Bakelite backed sofas and armchairs and marble mantle clock and Thirties style panelling."

They discussed the course of actions that would probably be taken in the next months during breakfast. Harry wanted to know more about that link between him and Voldemort.

"We're not sure yet. Dumbledore has a suspicion as you heard, but we don't know what he suspects yet. In any case it's important that nothing of that reaches any Death Eater's ear. It could jeopardise the research he's concluding. I'm sure we will learn more when we get back to Hogwarts. In the meantime – let's have some fun! It would be highly suspicious if we weren't seen around at all, so you'll have your annual appearance on Diagon Alley for sure and maybe one or two more."

"I'd love to go. I got familiar with many of the shopkeepers on the Alley before my third year. I'd like to see some of them again," said Harry.

They finished their breakfast and left for the nearest bus station to travel into St. Helier where they spent a large part of the day shopping. Both, Harry and Hermione needed swimming costumes and Hermione helped Harry to find nice clothes to replace his old junk. Since she knew he hated the attention centred on him, she cleverly took some away by buying some nice things for herself. And the moment she sported a new mini skirt and a lovely tank top she got his attention fast. Remus and Sirius exchanged very knowing glances and Remus made a sign with his thumbs and index fingers forming a ring, moving them from his eyes away and back. Sirius smirked. They took a few steps away from the teens and enjoyed the view of a love struck Harry.

"How long until he allows himself to think he's in love, Remy?" Sirius asked quietly.

"I don't know. He may need a bit of encouragement, just in case Hermione isn't forward herself."

"She knows he has emotional deficits, Remus, but if she doesn't make a move and he doesn't either we're giving her a hint rather than him."

Harry couldn't take his eyes away from his friend. He thought she looked delicious and wondered why he had never seen it before. It appeared to him that school robes, which covered everything, were partly to account for the fact, even though he saw her frequently without the robes in the common room or in their free time. They only had to wear the robes in class and to formal events in the Great Hall after all. But in the cold halls of Hogwarts Castle Hermione never wore anything light like this. She preferred comfortable jeans with loose cuts and t-shirts and jumpers over them and her feet usually were in warm boots. She had already left the fluffy pink phase behind her a few years before. But then he remembered how he had seen her coming down the stairs at the Yule Ball. It told him that for the right occasion she knew perfectly well how to clean up!

He was amazed as he looked at her. Malfoy's curse that had hit her teeth and Poppy Pomfrey's subsequent repair to a more comfortable size of her front teeth left her with the most charming smile he could imagine. It changed her face from child-like to young woman with style. She still wore her bushy hair, but the length it had reached gave it weight and a good volume, which she'd never have to pump up with chemicals!

But the most intensive change occurred when she showed off the bikini she'd chosen. Never mind that the thong sat very small, the top didn't need to be tiny to demonstrate that she had grown out nicely in all the right places. Harry stared at the small bits of black and gold clothing.

"Like it?" she asked with a cheeky smile and moved her hips in a way that Harry felt something in his nether regions that made him blush dark red.

"It's... wow, Hermione, you... I never knew you looked that... that good! Well, I knew at the Yule ball, but..., heck. I shouldn't have said that."

Hermione laughed and before she returned to the changing cabin she replied:

"You said exactly the right things, Harry, thanks! I'll buy it. Especially because I think dad will go bonkers and mum will think I have designs on someone. Which I do."

"You do?" he asked, looking very disappointed. "Will you tell me on whom?"

"On a so far pretty clueless boy with loads of love he doesn't know he has and who seems to have had an eye-opener very recently," she said easily and continued: "Oh, and he's got a snowy owl." Then she returned to get dressed in her regular clothing again.

Harry stared open mouthed and completely forgot that he had two watchdogs in his back who both smirked. They high-fived each other and Sirius said in a low voice:

"Doesn't look like we will have to say anything at all. Dear little Hermione has some surprising curves and interesting attitudes. And she knows how to drop the right kind of hints."

"Looks like a hole in one to me!"

"He's speechless."

"Can't utter a word in his surprise."

And the two men started to laugh as they did back in school when a prank had been executed to perfection.

After lunch in a nice restaurant they returned to the Manor. Remus summoned beach towels and sent the teens off to the beach.

"We'll come a bit later," he added.

Harry showed Hermione the room next to his and said:

"Like it? It's yours for when you come here and stay over night, okay?"

"It's great! I love it! Where's your room?"

"Right next door. There are only these two rooms up here and four down on the Marauders' floor. There's a bathroom here, too, between the two rooms."

"Wow, I feel pampered. What about Ron, Harry? Where will you put him up? With you?"

"I don't think so. I get enough of his snoring at Hogwarts. There are three more rooms downstairs; he'll get one of those."

"I feel privileged then. Let's change, okay?"

"Yep."

Five minutes later they were on the way down to the beach, using the long stairs built into the small cliff on which the house lay. It didn't take them long, they threw their towels on the beach and moved towards the shore. Hermione stood for a moment and asked:

"How's your swimming ability?"

"Learned it at school before Hogwarts, but not well. I can keep myself on top."

"Well, there's not much swimming needed to sway on the surf coming to the shore if we don't walk out very far. Up until you have the water just over your chest you're fine. I love jumping with the waves and letting them carry me a bit to the shore, then going back out again!"

Sirius and Remus sat out on the terrace with a drink and were busy watching the kids when Remus heard the Floo. He went to answer. It was Dumbledore.

"Hello Albus."

"Hello, Remus! I just wanted to make sure you arrived properly."

"Yes, all's perfectly well. Harry loves the room and we've been shopping today. He's now getting the first taste of the sea with Hermione."

"Hermione is there already?"

"Harry called her this morning and we invited her over."

"So he went for her first and not for Ronald?" Albus was astonished.

"Come on, Albus, are you blind all of a sudden? When he told me that you people thought Ron was the thing he'd miss most sorely and put him up as a hostage in the second task Sirius and I both laughed, but without mirth! This morning we got the proof. Our Harry has decided on his future partner. You know the Potter thing about falling only once, but falling hard! And their faible for intelligent women."

"That will be a great disappointment for young Miss Weasley then."

"She'll get over it. After all she would have wanted him for all the wrong reasons – fame and money. Hermione has enough money at her disposal and will inherit what her parents leave all alone, and she knows that Harry doesn't care for the fame he has. She wants 'just Harry'. Which is exactly what Harry needs in a partner. It's wonderful to see them bonding, especially since they're already such close friends."

"Molly won't like it at all. She's been bugging me all year about those articles in the Daily Prophet. She might offer a marriage contract with her daughter to Sirius…"

"She's superficial enough to fall for them, too. She was the one who filled Ginny's head with all the Boy Who Lived nonsense since the girl was still a baby. It's really her fault that Ginny has that crush in the first place. I'm sure Molly would love to see it happen; she could land a very nice fortune for her daughter if it were the case. But there's not much she will be able to do and any such offer would be laughed out of the house."

"I had the impression that maybe Ron would show interest in Hermione," Albus sighed.

"That may be, but truly, Albus, it takes two to tango. If you had seen Hermione this morning it would have been clear to you that she has definitely chosen Harry. Besides, would you wish this kid on any decent girl? I've seen him at the table in the Great Hall and in my classroom! He has the worst possible table manners and work ethics and is using Hermione to hold up his grades. He's been nothing but rude with her. She's too intelligent to even think about a relationship with him. Brrr, that squicks me horribly. But she really complements Harry in every way. They already acted in love long ago. He's always very caring towards her. He thinks of her first. He has a visible bond with her and they sometimes communicate without saying anything. Ron and Hermione bicker. Constantly. I don't see that as a good basis for any kind of relationship, not even friendship. These two are friends, because they're Harry's friends first of all. Why on earth would you like to see them together?"

"The Weasleys are fine people, but they are very poor..."

"And Bill, Charlie and Percy will earn good money, and do so already. They're off their roster. The twins are ingenious, they'll make something out of themselves, no matter how little they're interested in academics. These two will just make magic work for them. Ginny is a good and able student, she'll make a good career in any profession she chooses. Ron? Unless he pulls his finger out from his behind he'll end up in the poorhouse. If it's a financial gain for them you have in mind by pushing two couples together who would be entirely unhappy – then shame on you, Albus. – Is there anything else?"

"No, I really only wanted to see that you have arrived safely. Thank you, Remus."

"Good. Don't be grumpy, Albus, you can't force everything to your liking. Give our best regards to Minerva, please."

"Thank you, I will. Good evening, Remus."

Remus closed the connection and frowned for a moment. This was the first time since he knew him that he had openly opposed the old headmaster and it felt liberating. He had spent all of his life being thankful for the opportunities Albus had given him, and had always felt obliged to follow the man almost blindly. But these days were over now. He started to become more critical.

He returned to Sirius who had taken a seat on the bench on the terrace and read the Daily Prophet. Remus snuggled close and didn't mind it at all when Sirius put the paper back down on the table. Sirius kissed Remus lightly and asked:

"What did he want?"

"Know if Harry has arrived well. When I told him that he did and was now enjoying the beach with Hermione he made a comment about Ginny Weasley being disappointed when she hears of them getting closer."

"Really? He's already made a remark about Ginny and Harry to me. I would have put my money on Harry and Hermione ever since I learned to know them and even after I spent only such a short time in their company..."

"Oh, he made me quite angry actually. Even more so when he suggested Hermione would be better off with Ron. The same Ron Weasley, who talks about her in the rudest ways, puts her down all the time and bickers with her constantly. I told him that would be a very ugly relationship. Then he went and crowned it with a remark that the Weasleys were good people, only poor... that did it for me. I wouldn't be astonished to find out that Molly Weasley has gone and talked him into this, because she has designs on Harry's fortune. Put him up with Ginny and she knows she'd have a wonderful access to it because Harry wouldn't say no to anything Ginny wanted."

"Don't make me gag, Remus! Yuck!"

"Exactly. Arthur and the boys are just fine, even Percy, but Molly and Ron really turn me off. Ginny is simply a doll."

"I don't know them well enough to say much. But you noticed how Molly and I didn't get along well at all right from the start!"

Remus laughed.

"I bet that's mainly because you now hold the reigns to Harry's life and fortune until he's of age. And what she doesn't know is that unless we ask Gringotts he won't have access to everything before he's 21. She has quickly figured that you won't control him like Dumbledore does. I think it will be better if you don't meet her too often, Padfoot! I don't think you would remain peaceful for long!"

"Oh, I find her perfectly infuriating. She thinks she can boss around everyone! The day before yesterday she had the nerve to tell me I only saw James in Harry! As if I could. Not with these green eyes Harry has. But she didn't know James, she just thinks she has figured everything out."

"Yes, I thought that was very low of her. I liked how you told her she wasn't Harry's guardian and had no say in anything concerning Harry. And that she talked to you in that tone and in your house, well, I thought it was a bit too much!"

"I hope the doxies bite her in her arse... I don't want to spend any time in that house if I don't have to."

"Good thing you already threw all those dark objects into your family vault. They made me feel horrible, almost all of them. And too much silver, too."

"Exactly. There's still enough left over though."

"Anyway, Dumbledore hinted that Molly might offer you a marriage contract for her daughter. I told him that such an offer would be laughed out of this house."

"That it would – most certainly."

They shared a few more kisses. The afternoon wore on and the two men decided to join the teens down at the shore.

Harry and Hermione had returned to the beach and lay on their towels, talking. Hermione made sure they were well covered with sunscreen. Harry just stared at her. Hermione loved his glances.

"Harry, I'm glad you like to look at me. What does it make you feel?"

"I don't really know, Hermione. I'm so uncertain about feelings in general. I know I love you, you've been my best friend for a few years now."

"Well, that's a start."

"What do you feel when you look at me?" he asked quickly.

"That's quickly said. I feel wonderful. It makes me shiver slightly and in my stomach there's a fluttering of a good number of butterflies. My heart beats faster and pumps more blood around. It's generally called love. I love you, Harry, far more than as a mere friend. You've been my very first friend, too, by the way. Only through you did I make other friends around Hogwarts. I will always love you."

"I think I can feel all of that as well..." he admitted.

Hermione beamed. She was certain that he loved her already, but she knew it would be hard to get it out of him because with his kind of upbringing he would have little ideas about the feelings he had. But, he had said the three words, even if he didn't know yet that they went much deeper than friendship.

"Since when...?" he asked.

"Ages ago. At the latest when I saw you again after they got me out of that pesky petrification."

"Until just around the Yule ball I thought Ron would want you to be his girlfriend. I remembered how he was always so jealous, because I get everything and then... but he was never really nice to you, was he?"

"Ron? I would never lose time with him, Harry. Not beyond casual friendship anyway. He's far too annoying."

"He might still be after you, you know! The way he was even jealous of Viktor! Everyone else could see that the two of you were nothing more than friends, but Ron? Gosh, I would never have believed it the way he went on about Viktor at the beginning of the year."

Hermione laughed.

"That's just it. He's 15 and he's immature – heck, you're much more mature than he'll ever be, Harry, even though you're younger than him and emotionally scarred from your abusive relatives. He may not have a rich family, but he's been spoiled from the day he was born! Instead of finding a place for himself like all his brothers did he thinks they've already done everything possible and that he's just the loser anyway. Of course he's the loser if he never shows the slightest interest or effort, like they did. He thinks the world owes him and doesn't want to see that all the things his brothers achieved they only got through hard work. Even the twins work loads more than he does. Of course, not all of it is his own fault, much blame can be put in his mother's court, because she pampers her kids and doesn't want to let them grow up. But what is really sad is that you would have stepped back and sacrificed your own happiness for this egotistical prat, just because you would be afraid to lose his friendship, Harry. Just imagine what that would mean! We'd both end up in very unhappy relationships, because you would have denied it to yourself and I would have given up on you and maybe even settled with the prat! I don't even want to think of it."

"So where are the two of us now?" he asked.

"Dating? Gosh, I hate that word, it expresses nothing, but I guess it's the term of the time. For the prudish that is, and I am definitely not prudish. Going with each other?"

"Actually I'd prefer boyfriend/girlfriend, Hermione."

She beamed, turned to him and replied:

"I'd like that! We can take it from there, can we? I know I'm ready for it in any case. Are you?"

"I am. Now in any case. Just knowing I have two people looking out for me who are my guardians now gives me the security to mature. I can feel their affection in the whole house, in the way they talk to me, how they touch me and for that I didn't have to be here longer than a few hours. Amazing, isn't it? It was like a revelation. I want you in my life, Hermione; even if that means that some people will hate you a lot for snatching up the Boy-Who-Lived. You don't like me for that, you like me for myself."

He moved forward and kissed her tenderly on the cheek, then on the lips. It didn't take them long to expand that into a good snog on the beach, which was only interrupted when two voices behind them made a "hm hm" sound. They both jumped apart and saw both Marauders laugh.

Remus begged them to excuse him:

"We didn't mean for you to jump away from each other, we just meant to make a noise to alert you of our presence..."

"Oh, if that's so..." Hermione replied and laughingly grabbed Harry for another kiss.

"I think our presence isn't all too necessary, Moony, let's go in the water," Sirius said, winked at the teenagers and pulled Remus towards the sea. The water wasn't very warm, but refreshing at the end of a long, hot day.

The four of them wrapped the day up nicely on the big terrace above the beach with a wonderful dinner courtesy of Dobby, who was eating with them, much to Hermione's pleasure. After dinner there was a floo call from Arthur Weasley, who thanked Sirius for the permission to stay at his London house to set up everything for the Order of the Phoenix.

"You're perfectly welcome, Arthur, I'm glad you all want to help getting the place usable. Feel free to take down any and all things that make it so horrible. Call me if you need help for that. I'd like to have that house renovated and brightened up."

"I'll tell Molly, Sirius!"

"I have transferred a bit of gold to a vault to help Molly getting the necessary things she'll need, paint and brushes, furniture and everything else. – Arthur, there are still loads of fairly dark objects in the house, I'd thank you to throw them all into a room in the cellar, there are some more than big enough for that, so we can have Bill or someone check them through. I'd like to be there when that takes place though, okay?"

"Noted, Sirius! That's a job for some of us Order members."

"Great. Don't be afraid to ask Minerva if she can spare a few of her house-elves over the summer break. Though I'd be thankful if you could take the dreadful heads down before you ask any of the lovely little helpers inside there! Poor dears could be traumatised if they have to see that. At least we were able to get rid of my mother's old portrait. Should you have problems with the sticking charm used to hold the heads on the wall just use Diffindo on the panelling, as we've done to get Mother out. Then either re-panel or plaster/paint the hallway, either is fine. I'd like to come back and find cream and white colours on the wall, please! Anything is fine really, as long as it's light and pastel."

"Will do, Sirius. Filius is due tomorrow to set up the Fidelius. You should be here, too, then."

"What time?"

"Two in the afternoon."

"Will be there."

Hermione wished them a good evening and returned to her home, not before asking whether she could take part in the next day's procedures at Grimmauld Place. Sirius grinned and said she was welcome as she would be one of the persons who would be told the secret anyway. He already understood that Hermione's quick thinking and intellect would be a greater asset than many of the current Order members'. He thought she was independent enough not to blindly follow the herd, meaning Dumbledore. Sirius had quickly gathered that Hermione had become more discriminating in her choice of accepted authority.

The next day saw the Jersey crowd floo to Grimmauld Place. Since the secret, which was covered by the Fidelius was a general one - "The Order of the Phoenix may be found at Number 12, Grimmauld Place" it was decided that the Secret Keeper should be someone who would live there in the near future, because Sirius had point blank refused Dumbledore. Ginny had been the first to offer to take the role. Molly was of course completely against it and the mood in the house was quite frosty when Sirius, Remus, Harry and Hermione arrived.

In fact they arrived in the middle of a raging row between Molly and her youngest child. She was in flames over Ginny's suggestion to become the Secret Keeper for the Order and kept screaming at her daughter that she was not a member and that nothing was asked of her than helping with the cleaning, working for school and gaining Harry's heart.

Sirius, Remus, Harry and Hermione stared at each other in shock. Molly hadn't noticed them yet, because she stood with her back to the Floo fireplace ands screamed, but Ginny and Ron clearly saw them. Ginny hissed:

"Just in case you haven't noticed it yet, Mother: I have done some growing up in the meantime and my crush on Harry is long gone. I am not going to be used by you for any plan to become the Mrs Boy-Who-Lived! Harry and I would be about as compatible as Celestina Warbeck and Mad-Eye Moody! Whether I'm a member of the Order or not doesn't make a difference. None of the Death Eaters would even think little Ginny Weasley was the Secret Keeper. I'd probably be right on the bottom of their list of possible candidates. In fact I would probably only figurate on it due to my being a relative of known of soon to be known Order members. Since I am not allowed to leave the place unless guarded by at least a herd of Order members the secret would be safest with me. So there! If you can't see beyond your stupid mummy-behaviour you should consider quitting before you even start being a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

Even otherwise clueless Harry stood with his mouth open after Ginny's tirade.

"Her reasoning is sound, Molly," Remus remarked quietly. "And as a founding member of the Order of the Phoenix I will strongly support her. I will even support her if she wants to become a member of the Order. Arthur would let her, too. Passion like Ginny's is an asset. We have enough docile members who leave the thinking to the leaders."

Molly turned around in shock and rounded on him.

"Are you even aware of what you're saying, Remus Lupin? She is a **child**, for Merlin's sake! Children have got nothing to do in a war!"

"You may think that she is a child, but think of all she has already seen – especially the mind of one Lord Voldemort. She has survived being possessed by him for almost a year and she's come out of it with her mind intact. That strength is truly an asset, Molly. You should not hold her back. Besides, what she says is true – she's not allowed outside of the house alone and would thus be the safest option. Safe for herself as well as the rest of us. She certainly doesn't want to put herself in danger."

"This is none of your business, Remus! She is **my** daughter and she is still a minor. It is **I** who will decide on what she may or may not do, no one else."

"You forget someone, Molly – me!" Arthur threw in. He, too, had only just flooed in from work to be present when the Fidelius would be cast.

"Arthur! You are not going to allow something as harebrained as Ginny becoming the Secret Keeper! Our lives depending on a child? Are you completely out of your mind?"

"No, I am not. I trust my daughter. And I think she would be an excellent Secret Keeper. Besides the fact that for the moment it's only a cautionary measure anyway she's inconspicuous enough not to be noticed."

Ginny beamed. It felt good that at least one of her parents saw her need to do something to help the cause in a way she could. She stepped up and found herself in her father's arms. Molly was speechless. Never before had her husband even dared to speak against one of her decisions regarding her children and now he did it in the midst of the children and all these other people. His lenience had led her to believe that her children were her very own possession. He had always left this part of their upbringing to her, but now she knew he would step up if he ever saw the need to do so.

Remus complimented Arthur in his mind. He thought Arthur's methods were pretty clever, because they allowed Arthur to be in his children's good grace, and still keep his authority. He grinned. Together they would tame this dragon that was Molly Weasley.

But then he remembered that she actually *asked* Ginny to keep on trying to catch Harry. He looked over to Sirius and when Sirius caught his glance he nodded just slightly. They would have to talk about that and maybe even tell Arthur about it.

All discussions ended when Filius Flitwick arrived. Minerva was with him in Dumbledore's place. She greeted everyone and asked:

"Have you thought about a suitable Secret Keeper?"

All involved parties from before started to speak up again, but Arthur held up his hands to silence them and said to Minerva:

"Ginny has offered to take the role and I think it is an excellent idea. How do we proceed?"

Filius looked around and said:

"I'm a bit uncomfortable that you all know who the Secret Keeper will be, but this could be solved by using a second level of the Charm."

"You mean to cover the Secret Keeper with another Fidelius?" Remus asked.

"Exactly. Therefore Miss Weasley could be the Secret Keeper with no added danger to her person, even when she leaves for Hogwarts. She would keep the Secret that the Order resides here and then another person would keep the secret on who the Secret Keeper is. We can do this in a way that none of us know who keeps the second secret."

Sirius and Remus looked at each other and made slightly sad faces! It would have been so easy to set up something like this for the Potters, but they had not done enough. But Filius' idea at least helped Molly to cope with the fact that her daughter would stand in as the Secret Keeper. Ginny beamed, knowing that this was a position with a lot of responsibility; she knew that she was able to carry the weight of that responsibility.

Harry and Hermione were truly proud of her and even Ron, who felt jealousy well up in him had to admit she was a good choice. Not only was she good at keeping the secret, she was feisty enough to stand up to most opponents long enough until she could either get out or help came.

"Depending on the wording of a secret to be kept with a Fidelius charm a person or a building, or even an object, vanish or not. The house here will vanish completely to anyone who has not been told the secret by the Secret Keeper, either in spoken or in written form. The second level charm will not vanish anything from sight. It will just exclude a piece of knowledge. Even those who know that the Order resides at this house will not remember the Secret Keeper at all, only the person who will take that role. Miss Weasley will therefore be able to interact with everyone inside or outside of the house completely normal. Nothing will change for her, in spite of the heavy responsibility. As soon as the charm has been cast you need to inform all of us immediately, Miss Weasley, or we will all feel like we're nowhere at all."

Flitwick then placed everyone in the centre of the room. He performed the ancient charm with aplomb and it was all over in a matter of minutes. Ginny spoke as soon as the charm took hold:

"Dear fellow members of the Order of the Phoenix: Know that the Order of the Phoenix may be found at Number 12, Grimmauld Place!"

The other people in the room, who had fallen in a near-stasis because they neither remembered where they were, nor what they did in the place they were, relaxed and smiled. They all knew what they needed to know again. Flitwick explained the consequences:

"Now this is what you have to know: You will be absolutely unable to speak of the location here with its name. You may probably talk about the Black house or Headquarters or whatever, but it will be impossible for you all to use the name Number 12, Grimmauld Place outside of the actual place. The only one who can do that will be Miss Weasley."

"What if she accidentally mentions it?" asked Bill. "Will the secret be lost?"

"Only if she uses the whole phrase we used for the charm. Any other wording would not break it. That's why I have gone for a wording that sounds a bit old fashioned. Probably not something she'd use in everyday life."

"Okay, we understand that. So what will the next step be?" Arthur inquired.

"The next step is that we decide who will guard the secret of who the Secret Keeper is. This will have nothing to do with the location, so no one except for the new Secret Keeper, the original Secret Keeper Miss Weasley and the caster of the charm will be touched. As you have noticed before, I was in the same situation as everyone else; I needed to be told the secret of the location. The new Secret Keeper can be kept anonymous if we decide who it will be through a draw. Only I, who will actually have to know for the Charm, will know until I have cast it. Once I cast it, the Secret Keeper himself or herself will be unknown. What do you think?"

"But Ginny will still be visible for us all, you said, is that right?" Molly asked worriedly.

"Yes, that is correct. She will be among us just like before, interacting and visible. The secret to keep will be: 'The Secret Keeper for the location of the Order of the Phoenix is Ginny Weasley.' This does not hide her, it only hides her function."

"Ah, okay, then I'm perfectly fine with it. This will keep her safe."

"Fine. Here's what we do: We prepare little slips of parchment and there will be an X on one of them. You all pull them from a hat and the one who draws the X will keep that for themselves. But you each show them to me, then I will know who to include in the Charm."

"So, if it is me, for example, I will just keep quiet, also after the charm is cast, not like Ginny, who announced it?" Harry asked.

"Exactly. You should, however, write up a little slip of parchment later on and deposit it in your Gringotts vault, so it could still be retrieved if something should happen to you. Otherwise Miss Weasley could never be freed from her secret."

"I've read somewhere that if a Secret Keeper dies then all those who were told the secret would become Secret Keepers themselves," Bill threw in.

"I know the very book where this is mentioned, Mr. Weasley, but it's the only one and it's wrong on that account. The curse as well as the blessing with the Fidelius charm is that it cannot be broken other than by the Secret Keeper telling or the Secret Keeper dismantling the charm by using its counter. Then it can be dissolved, but again, only by the Secret Keeper. Should the Secret Keeper die, only the people who were told the secret, will be able to keep their knowledge. This is why also Miss Weasley will have to write at least two or three notes, one of which shoud be deposited in the same Gringotts vault as the other."

"Very good. I offer my vault; I'll put an envelope on the mantel of the chimney in the living room. Ginny, you can add one of your slips in there, the second Secret Keeper can then add his or hers," Sirius said. "But I have a few additional questions for you later on, Filius."

"I'm at your full disposal for any of them, Sirius!"

Hermione, ever the practical one, had already started to prepare the slips. She counted the people in the room and wrote an X on the first slip. Flitwick put them into a pouch and mixed them up. Then everyone except Ginny walked up and picked one slip out of the pouch and looked at it. Filius felt in the pouch, none was left.

"Everyone has a slip?" he asked.

They all nodded.

"Very well. Then please form a line and hand me your slip."

He carefully looked at all of them while he placed their slips back into the pouch and saw that Fred Weasley had the X. Once everyone had passed he cast the Charm again efficiently. Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix had just been hidden and kept extremely safe.


	3. Horcruxes? What are Horcruxes?

**Chapter 3 – Horcruxes? What are Horcruxes?**

Filius remembered Sirius' request for a conversation in a smaller circle.

"About your questions?" he asked.

"Yes. Could we go over to the study for these? Remus, Harry, please come with me," Sirius replied.

The four changed their location much to the chagrin of the Weasley matriarch, whose curiosity was immediately piqued but wouldn't be stilled now. Sirius led the three men to the study and with a quick sweep of his wand, got rid of the worst of the dust and then set the silencing charms on the door. Remus opened the curtains and window shutters at the same time. They sat down on a few very uncomfortable pieces of furniture. Sirius turned to Filius.

"Filius, I wanted to ask if you were in any way consulted when the Potters decided to use the Fidelius charm and discussed it with Dumbledore."

"I'm sorry, Sirius, I only learned about it weeks after it was cast. Way too late!"

"Did anyone mention whether Dumbledore came up with the idea alone?"

"As far as I know he suggested the use of it. Lily must have been able to cast the charm easily. She was the best with her wand anyway, as you know very well."

"Okay. That's what I was afraid of. Dumbledore, as usual, held back additional information. He did not set up a total protection and he allowed for some holes to almost make sure James and Lily weren't completely safe."

"That's a very heavy accusation, Sirius. Why do you suspect that was done, if I may ask?"

"I will tell you, Filius. One of the reasons was Dumbledore's nasty habit of keeping too many secrets. The main secret he keeps is the prophecy, which governs Harry's life now."

"I don't know this prophecy at all though I heard about its existence. Would you be ready to share it if you know it?"

"Yes, here it is: _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…_ Dumbledore thinks that it is obsolete now, because Harry brought back the living form of a defeated Voldemort. He says he made that clear to Voldemort. He said that the question wasn't whether we believe in prophecies or not, but the fact that one of the concerned people, namely Voldemort believes it, is what forces us to act as if it were real. Voldemort of course acted appropriately, because he only knew the first two stanzas, up to 'born as the seventh month dies', so he never knew what else the prophecy says. He thought it best to eliminate the threat before it would bite him in the arse. Then he went and forced the prophecy to become true. He marked Harry – his scar – and paid with his body. He has finally found an old follower foolish enough to go and help him into a new form of a body, which he planned to solidify with the ritual he couldn't even start because Harry and Cedric were true champions. This is the reason we have to go to the Ministry with Harry to actually destroy his ball. He will have heard it and it becomes obsolete there. Before he was attacked, the prophecy could have been about either Neville Longbottom or Harry, but once Harry was marked it was only Harry. None of that would have come to pass had Dumbledore not held back information. I suspect he deliberately tried to lure Voldemort into 'marking' his equal, thus forcing Voldemort's hand and knowing which of the boys would become his champion."

"I see where you are coming from. Albus expected that Voldemort would attack the Longbottoms and the Potters, so he wanted them covered with the Fidelius."

"Yes, but old manipulating Albus also wanted the prophecy fulfilled, because he knew that Voldemort would fall for it hook, line and sinker. Albus thought further, he fully expected one of the boys to survive and then he would have his weapon for the final fight against the snake; whom he would use for the Greater Good, no matter how the 'weapon' felt about it. I suppose he even planned for it to be Harry before he hid the two couples. Harry, and later the Longbottoms, paid the price."

"I understand your suspicions then. The question is Albus' motivation."

"Oh, it's certainly the 'Greater Good', but he's losing it – he wants to use everyone to reach that goal of getting a better society for everyone. He doesn't care for his victims any more than Voldemort does, even if he himself would never soil his hands with deliberate cruelty. Leaving Harry in the hands of abusive relatives and knowing what they did to him was very cruel, but he isn't even aware of that fact."

"Not much better and at the other end of the scale, eh?" Filius said, scratching his chin.

"Exactly so."

"Do you have more questions about the charm cast at Godric's Hollow?"

"Yes. The charm is still in place, isn't it? Harry and I could go there, but you could not? How do we get the charm cancelled at the place? We should be able to get hold of Wormtail, who still is the Secret Keeper."

"Yes, I'll show you the counter charm. But it cannot be done without the willing participation of the Secret Keeper as long as he's still alive. Do you think he'll cooperate?"

"He owes Harry a life debt…" Remus remarked.

"Ah yes. That could be cashed. I suppose he won't be able to work around that."

"Good. Thank you so much for your assistance, Filius! You're a great help!" Sirius said with conviction.

Filius smiled at him:

"You're very welcome! I am a charms master after all. I would like to say that I'm really glad it turned out that you weren't the traitor, Sirius. I did think it untypical for you, but I wasn't ever heard about the subject. I'll be looking forward to see you teaching next school year!"

"Thank you, Filius. I actually look forward to teach. I hope the kids will have a little bit more levity and fun in the subject then. As much as I like Minnie, she's not the easiest teacher to understand."

"No, I'm afraid she's rather rigid, isn't she? But then that has a cause and once you know that you will understand why she is the way she is, Sirius. Would you believe me if I told you that she was once as much of a rogue as you four boys were? At least nearly as much. She got married a few years after she left school and was widowed just shortly after her second child was born. She never got over the loss of her husband, who was murdered by Tom Riddle."

Harry gasped.

"Tom Riddle?" he asked.

"Yes. Does the name mean anything to you? Sadly he was a Hogwarts student who was even named prefect and Headboy, but after he left school he seems to have mingled with very bad folk."

"It certainly does. It also means something to you all or it should do, because Tom Riddle is Voldemort's real name," Harry spat.

Flitwick gasped as well.

"He made up his name – it's an anagram of 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' – turn it around until you get 'I am Lord Voldemort' out of it."

"How do you know that?" Sirius asked, baffled.

"He said so to me himself, down in the Chamber of Secrets, well, the memory figure in his cursed diary did," Harry answered.

"In any case, Minerva never really got over the loss of her beloved; she raised her two children, a daughter and a son, alone and came to Hogwarts when they were just grown and out of the house. They both have a number of children and grandchildren now."

"I never thought of her as a mother, but I always knew she was a softie, deep down," Sirius said.

"Yes, you did. You also knew how to play her very well if I remember right," Filius said with a smile.

"But now I hope we never used her! She deserves every kind of respect."

"She certainly does. She never found another mate – because she shared that special bond with her husband that true lovers share. It's not so rare and I think I can sense it in you two as well."

Remus and Sirius shared a glance and Remus confirmed:

"We must have it. There wasn't a moment's doubt we'd go our path together again when Sirius' name was cleared. Even before and in spite of him being on the run actually."

"That's nice. You deserve it, too. You'll take care of each other better now, will you?"

"We certainly will do, Filius. I know if we had talked more we might have found out that Wormtail played us in time to keep James and Lily alive. The price was almost too high," Sirius said in a low voice.

"We have to learn by our mistakes, Sirius."

"Well, I will try not to make the mistake of not talking. Hermione will always know all of my secrets," Harry threw in.

Filius' bright smile surprised him.

"So you noticed it finally? That is wonderful news, Harry! You deserve the happiness this bond with Miss Granger will bring you."

"Bond? What bond?"

"You and Miss Granger are almost certainly sharing a soul bond, Harry. I have seen it coming over the past four years. It's a wonderful thing to have!"

"You mean we were fated to be together? No real choice?"

"No, nothing as dramatic as that. You and Hermione Granger share the kind of chemistry that makes you an ideal match. Everyone in this world only has a number of real partners and the chemistry must be right for the persons involved to make it a life-long match. It's possible to love and cherish another person, but in most cases that will not last a lifetime. The right chemistry reduces your choices for a life-long partnership by a great number, but that doesn't mean you couldn't find happiness with another partner."

"Ah. That's better. So you think that the right chemistry just helps two people to find each other? And it's not like they meet and bang! – they are in some funny bond?"

"That would be fairy tale thinking, Harry. No, it doesn't happen with a bang or with a certain event like a first touch or kiss. Though physical contact does enforce it much more than anything else. I have some elvin blood in me, and it allows me to see a bit deeper into the humans around me, therefore I could always see it grow in the two of you. I am most happy that you seemed to have come to an understanding?"

"Yes, we have. Yesterday. I mean, I know I've loved her since we started to be friends, but I never realised that it was more than that until a short while ago."

"That's wonderful! This could actually be your power that is stated in the prophecy. To love someone and to know that someone loves you can give you extra strength in almost everything. You will find out as soon as you cast spells!"

"Do you mean they would come to me more easily? Because somehow until now I had a hard time to get spells to work. The summoning charm I only learned well because my life depended on it in the first task."

"This is a bit strange actually. Both, Lily and James were very strong casters. I have a hard time believing that you didn't inherit that gift."

"I'm at best average," Harry said, disappointment clear in his voice.

"They might have blocked some of your magic if you showed too much of it at an early age? Many parents do that and then release the blocks once the children gain control of their magic," Filius suggested.

"Is it possible to find that out?" Harry asked.

"Not by us. If it was your parents who applied the charm it will only be specialised charm breakers at Gringotts or possibly St. Mungo's who will be able to spot the blocks and to remove them."

"Then I'll take you there when I go and we ask them, Harry," Sirius promised.

"Thanks Sirius."

"One final question, Filius, and I want your personal opinion about that. The question only just occurred to me, since you talked about possible blocks on Harry's magic. I'm quickly getting that Dumbledore didn't make any start on training Harry. If Voldemort's acted out that prophecy and Dumbledore responds to his actions, then he should rightly train that special power Harry seems to have, not keep him downtrodden and uneducated… what do you think?"

"Hmmm. Do you know, I do think you're on to something here. Could it be possible that Dumbledore just needed the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort so Voldemort could be killed? That the outcome doesn't really matter at all? Because the text of the prophecy is very unclear of that. It states that neither can live as the other survives. That worries me a lot, because at the moment that is exactly the case, though Voldemort is certainly much closer to death than Harry right now. You mentioned the scar on Harry's forehead as Voldemort's mark."

"It's from where his killing curse hit me and rebounded," Harry mentioned and added, "and Dumbledore told me that Voldemort accidently left some of his power inside of me with it. It's why I'm a Parselmouth among other things."

"It's almost as if there's a piece of Voldemort inside of you, Harry," Filius said, shocking Harry to the bone.

As Filius was a very sensitive man he knew exactly why Harry was so shocked. He hastened to sooth the young man:

"That doesn't mean that you are like him at all, but it's like a piece of him is implanted in you that has Voldemort's essence."

All of a sudden, Filius looked terrified. Harry worried that the kind old professor now thought him to be as evil as Voldemort, but the little man went on:

"Harry, I distinctly remember that you said something about hearing from Tom Riddle himself where his fabricated name came from. Is there anything you remember about the Chamber that had to do with this image of Riddle?"

"Yes, the diary. The moment I destroyed it, the image of Tom Riddle vanished. There was one huge scream when he went. And you know what? The same thing happened when we killed the snake in the graveyard. Not the image, but the scream! The snake was dead, I'm sure of that, but then immediately there was this horrible scream, and it sounded the same as in the Chamber of Secret. I told Dumbledore."

Filius clicked his fingers.

"That's it. I know what the problem is. This scar hides an accidental Horcrux, Harry. A piece of Voldemort's soul!"

Harry almost screamed in fright. Remus and Sirius were just as shocked. The old professor though nodded and said:

"The very thing I believe Albus now researches. Sirius, do you think we might find anything on this subject in your family's infamous library? I know it's a very old library and many rare tomes are found in it…"

"And many of them darkest stuff. Sounds like an excellent idea, Filius, if we actually want to find anything, this might be a first class address. But what, pray tell, is a Horcrux?"

"A Horcrux is a container for soul pieces. They keep the owner of the soul fragment bound to earth. You cannot die fully as long as your soul is split up. There are ways to destroy such containers, but most people who would think of making a Horcrux would protect it strongly. To find out how to create one you'd probably have to look for a long time, and very few people still know about them at all. I only know what it is and what it does, but given my age that's not too astonishing. The knowledge of them has been squeezed out of the magical society in the early 1890s. How did you get the diary destroyed, Harry?"

"I stabbed it with a venomous basilisk tooth," Harry explained.

"And the snake?"

"That was easy. We killed it with a Reductor curse; both Cedric and I cast it together. Does this mean I have to die for it to be possible that Voldemort can be killed at all?"

Harry wanted to go and commit suicide hearing this. How could fate be THAT cruel to him? He saw his life as over and wanted nothing more than to go and tell Hermione to quit before she became too attached to him. Filius though, told him that nothing would have to be eaten as hot as it was served.

"No, I don't really expect you to die from the process. We will have to do some research, but it might be possible to remove that mark from your forehead and to place it in another container, which can then be destroyed."

Harry sagged in relief. So there was still a chance.

"Maybe I have to be killed by Voldemort? And then he wouldn't really kill me but the Horcrux would take the brunt?"

"That is what the prophecy suggests, but if it is obsolete I wouldn't want to take the risk. Once you're dead you're dead, you know," Sirius said immediately. "And I suspect that's what Dumbledore was setting you up for. He probably expected that Voldemort would kill you and if you were lucky he would kill his own Horcrux while you'd survive. And then he could take the glory for taking Voldemort down or something."

"I could make a Horcrux of my own?"

"You wouldn't want to do that. It involves a ritual, then a cold-blooded murder followed by an extensive ritual. Would you be capable of doing that?" Filius asked.

"Definitely not!"

"That's why this is an almost forgotten thing. Only a handful of witches and wizards under the age of about 100 would still know about it unless they delved deep into the Dark Arts. I suppose not even Voldemort's Death Eaters know anything about it."

"Well, we shall look through the library, but first I have to go about freeing it from the Black family curse. No one who isn't a Black by blood can really touch those books," Sirius said.

"I would gladly help you in that research, Sirius," Filius offered.

"You are very welcome. We'll transfer the books to our current home and you can come visit us any time. At the moment we're all still quite safe, I don't think anyone knows or believes that Voldemort is back, so we should use that time to our advantage," Sirius invited Filius.

"How do I reach your house?"

"Coming here and using the Floo name Seaside Manor and the password 'Mr. Perfectly Billowing Robes is an ass' will get you there straight, Filius," Sirius replied with an evil grin.

"I would like to be here when he has to use that password," Filius replied with an even wider grin.

"Do I get the impression you're not overly enamoured with the potions master either?" Remus asked.

"No, I'm not. I absolutely despise him, to be quite honest and frank. I cannot see why Albus doesn't rein the man in more."

"Yes, I'd like to have that question answered as well," Remus admitted.

"And I! He's making my life a living hell down in his classroom. And Neville's as well. And practically anyone's who's not a Slytherin. And it's also as if he knew exactly what I'm thinking every time I'm in there. He knows exactly what buttons to push that I will lose it! And I just can't help it I fall for it every time! He takes advantage of that all over the place."

"Legilimency," said Filius immediately.

"Legilimency? You think he reads my mind?" Harry was shocked.

"I'd almost place a bet on that. I know he's accomplished, as an Occlumens as well as a Legilimens. It's illegal, of course, but I doubt he cares much for that. His advantage is that it is very hard to prove."

"Well, all the more a good reason to teach you Occlumency. We'll start tomorrow, Harry," Remus said.

"I think that's going to help me a lot then. Dumbledore rummaging around in my brain is one thing, but the overgrown bat – that's just too much. Sorry for insulting bats though, they're actually too nice to have anything to do with Snape."

When Filius finally took his leave after this long conversation he turned to the three men and said:

"Thank you very much for this conversation, dears, it has been most educational. Send me an owl when we can start our research."

"We will, Filius. Thank you for the help!"

Just as Flitwick reached the door, Harry piped up:

"Professor, there's one thing that just occurred to me – if a Horcrux can only be made with a cold blooded murder and a complex ritual, how come there could be an 'accidental' one inside of me? I don't think that all conditions were met. Voldemort might have committed that cold blooded murder when he killed my mum, but I doubt he had the time to finish any ritual in the time that the curse took to bounce off from me and hitting him, would he?"

Flitwick turned around and agreed.

"Yes, I think that's true. It must be researched some more, Harry, but I'm sure we'll find a way! This is ancient old magic and there are people who know about such things. We can always include the Goblins at Gringotts, for they are excellent at such things or even the house-elves as well! You won't be alone. I won't rest until we have found a way!"

"Thank you, Professor. I won't give up just yet and I won't despair," Harry replied.

He was amazed that his charms professor was so engaged to help him. He'd always liked Flitwick, but then, everyone at Hogwarts liked Flitwick! This was another proof of this tiny professor's sincerity and love for everyone who was kind and good. Harry shook his hand and smiled at the elderly teacher.

"That's the way to go, Harry. I'll see you all for a bit of delving into the book stacks!" Flitwick said cheerfully.

In the meantime Ginny had sat down and wrote her information on several pieces of parchment, slightly distorting her own handwriting. She handed them to Filius, who accepted them with a graceful bow and a kind smile.

"With your permission I will take one of them to Hogwarts and will show them to the other Order members among the staff, which are Albus, Poppy, Severus and Pomona. They will be the only ones there to be made aware of the secret."

Secretly he thought he would like to pass over Severus.

Sirius replied: "I would think that for the time that Albus is unavailable we will accept Minerva as the second in command of the Order. She can decide who else will be informed. I suppose the Aurors working on the project with Albus should be in on it as well."

"Excellent. Then you shall see to it that the other members of the Order will be informed as well?" Filius asked.

"Yep! I'll call for a meeting at Hogwarts next week, that's way early enough. May I suggest that we do not tell anyone else who the actual Secret Keeper is? I know from my own horrible experience that it's bad to keep the knowledge away from too many people, but we're already a considerable group here who do know."

"I am all for it," Molly agreed immediately and was supported by the rest of her family.

"That is a reasonable request, Sirius, and questions about it can easily be blocked by mentioning the importance of the maintenance of safety. Besides that we can't say it to anyone who wasn't here for the proceeds, since one of us holds the secret of knowing the Secret Keeper."

Sirius sighed in relief. He was sure that this house would now be a safe haven for all Order members who would be keyed in, even if at this stage it wasn't even necessary. The old adage of better to be prepared worked well in his point of view. He grinned and rubbed his hands:

"Well then – everyone who wants to stay here is welcome – just please, please start taking the place apart and renovate! Throw out the horrible stuff in here and refurbish and refurnish the whole thing! I have opened a small vault at Gringotts and I'll give Molly and Arthur the right to take out money for the renovation and new furniture. I'd be thankful for a correct overview over the figures though. When I have to come back the next time I would like to come into a drawing room with light, colour and air! Anyone of you up to tackle the garden?"

Molly offered to take that in her hands, but sighed.

"I'm good at growing vegetables, but rubbish at clearing a jungle like this one out there. And I'm sure it was once a beautiful garden. Ron and Ginny can well help me though."

"Must have been. The last three generations of Blacks at the house were just utterly degenerated and crazy, so they let everything slip. I'll see that we can ask some of the Hogwarts house-elves to help with it. Their magic is astounding! So that's my only demand in terms of renovation: I want this house back to its original Georgian grandeur, which was white, cream, more white, and lots of gold! See that cornicing up there and the skirting boards? They used to be covered in leaf gold! The curtains must have once been nice, but have been spelled not to let in any light and the gaslights everywhere are clearly Victorian – out with them! Open up the permanently closed shutters, too, but don't throw them away.

"On that note, I think our part here is done for today and I only want to go up to the library to grab a number of books needed for our research. May I ask you guys not to go in there, please? It's a dangerous place for anyone who does not have Black blood in their veins! I first have to contact my cousin to find out what enchantments are on those things. I shudder to think what could happen to any of you who are not recognised and hurt for not having the right kind of blood. Once the curses and charms are removed it's up to what you guys can stomach. Much of it is very dark and ugly."

"It should be destroyed outright if it is so dark! That's dangerous," Molly declared.

"On the contrary, Molly, it should be protected, but used. If you want to have the best grip on your enemy, know what they know, even though you don't necessarily use it. We're not stooping to their level if we know exactly what they work with!" Arthur said wisely.

"But it's dangerous knowledge..." she insisted.

"Of course it is. You don't have to burden yourself with it. It takes a lot of power and intelligence to use the knowledge wisely. If you know what you're up against, your fight will be easier and that is a great strategic and tactical advantage. Almost every one in this room is capable of knowing without misusing dark arts. For the simple mind it will always be better not knowing too much, but we're actively going to go up against the Death Eaters now, therefore we need more knowledge. We can leave the research to some Order members with respective experience and they can pass on to us what we need to know," Arthur explained patiently.

"A wise decision, Arthur," agreed Flitwick.

"Besides it is all about intent, Mrs Weasley," Harry piped up. "You can kill someone with a levitation charm if you float them out of a window on the tenth floor of a building and drop them. No one would go out and call a levitation charm dark, now, would they?"

That shut Molly up in seconds and Flitwick beamed.

Sirius called his cousin by floo and she arrived within a minute. Andromeda pounced on him and they caught up with each other with lots of hugs and some tearful hellos before vanishing straight up to the library. She didn't know all the spells that secured the old Black family books, but she knew the most important ones and she knew where to find the details, which were written down.

"I'm so glad you're free now, Siri! I missed you a lot, you know! Apart from Ted and I there were a few others who never believed you were guilty, but your true friends were kept down and forbidden to ask any questions. It didn't help that Remus believed it - at least on the surface. Deep down I'm sure he had his doubts, too. In the meantime the Ministry directed press did everything to sully your name throughout wizarding Britain. Every time one of these articles came out I cried!"

Andromeda was really happy to meet her favourite cousin again. They had shared a strong bond since their childhood. Of course Andromeda was a good number of years older than Sirius, but she had been his protector for as long as he could remember.

"Thanks, Andi! It's really good to know that some people actually believed in my innocence without properly investigated proof. I don't know how many just fell for the ministry statements and condemned me even though they should have known me well enough!"

"I've just always wondered how these things work in this our world, Sirius! So many of our fellow magical people seem to downright jump on such things! They can be swayed so easily by the bloody rag they read and if the Minister utters a word they think it's the greatest wisdom on the planet..."

Andromeda continued in that little rant until they reached the library. She was able to show him the key books, which helped him to understand the function of the guarding spells.

"And if that's still not enough you will have to contact Cissy. She's the one who will definitely know. Your mother has been great friends with her and will have informed her of all that a 'proper' Black needed to know..."

"Fine. Thanks a lot, Andi, that is certainly already a lot of important knowledge. Remus and I should be able to figure this out now. Can I invite you, Ted and Dora to dinner with us?"

"Not sure about Dora, but Ted and I will certainly come! Are you staying in this hovel then?"

"No. Remember the house Uncle Alphard left me on Jersey? I never managed to go there before I was imprisoned, but now we've chosen to live there with Harry. Seaside Manor, and the password Mr. Perfectly Billowing Robes is an ass will bring you there per Floo from here. Next Saturday evening?"

"Yes, that's fine, thanks for the invitation. I'm looking forward to it then! I'm happy for you and Remus. Looks like you made up?"

"Of course! How could we not? We love each other and I'm sure that coming back together after all of this means that we were truly meant for each other."

"I was always quite sure of that, Siri," Andromeda agreed, smiling.

While Sirius and Andromeda worked in the library down in the drawing room Ron finally realised that in the short time he'd not seen Harry and Hermione something must have changed with them. They had taken a seat next to each other on the other side of the long table from Ron and as he looked at them he noticed a connection between them he'd never noticed before. It was Hermione, who spoke up:

"Ron, I've visited Harry all day yesterday and we finally admitted our interest in each other. We discovered we both love each other very much, so we're a couple now."

Silence met this announcement. Remus kept smiling, but he noticed the frosty response coming from Molly and the youngest Weasley boy immediately. The twins, Bill, Charlie and Ginny catcalled and grinned, Arthur looked pleased and Flitwick positively beamed. Nothing of that seemed to go through to Molly and Ron. Molly downright scowled when it became clear to her that she could neither secure the Muggle-born witch for her son nor the Potter heir for her daughter. She had made big plans to marry away her little daughter with the Prince of the magical world. Her daughter would be filthy rich and would never have to lift a finger in her life. She had also thought that by arranging a match between her youngest son and Hermione he would have an easy time in life, because Hermione would be the provider who brought in the big salary from the career she was most likely to make. Both of these options now seemed out of her reach, especially since Ginny seemed to have had a change of heart. She was livid especially for that fact, because she had dreamed of the wealth her daughter would have, which would then certainly be shared by her family.

Remus, who stayed attentive, saw these emotions play on Molly Weasley's face. He remembered that Hermione had talked about how Molly had told her and Ginny how she made love potions back in her own Hogwarts days.

"Molly, may I have a word in private, please?" he asked.

He led her out of the room and into the study next to the drawing room and made her sit down.

"You seem to have a problem with our young couple, Molly?"

"I? Why ever, Remus? I would never..."

"Just so you know, Molly," Remus interrupted her, "when we arrived here, we overheard you demanding of Ginny to catch Harry's heart. Since Ginny immediately refused to do that you might have nourished the idea of doing something naughty like slipping them a love potion. And just so you are warned that doing so would lead to big, big trouble for you, because I will not allow anyone to use my cub. If Harry and Hermione are in love with each other, which I strongly suspect they are, then **you** will **not** interfere. We will monitor Harry and Hermione for potions on a regular basis. You have a reputation of working with love potions; therefore I will be very observant! Is that clear?"

"Perfectly clear, Remus."

"Very good. I also warn you right now, just in case you have the good idea to try to do something against Sirius' position as Harry's guardian. It is **he** who gives you shelter here and allows you to use his family home, no matter that it's no more than a dump right now, it's still his ancestral home, and you would do well to remember that fact."

Remus turned around and left the study. Molly sat steaming, staying behind for a while. She knew she was out-manoeuvred, before she could even start scheming and she was absolutely livid. She liked Harry well enough for himself, but she had liked from the start that he might help her family out of the constant financial misery. She blamed Arthur who was happy with very little. Arthur left all the finances to Molly and hardly spent a Knut on himself, save a few occasional drinks at one of the pubs with some work colleagues. Three of her sons were already out of her pocket, two came into their last year at Hogwarts and things were getting easier, but it would have been nice to move into a nicer house... talk about a burst bubble.

Ron wasn't very happy about the revelation either. He was not sure whether he really had a crush on Hermione or not, but if there was something there it was nipped in the bud by her announcement. He had thought that Hermione would stand back just as long as it took him to figure it out and then wait for him until he would open his lazy mouth. He stared at Harry and looked very angry. With a pointing finger he ran towards Harry and screamed:

"You! You! How could you steal my girl? I've had it up to here with your getting everything! Why her? I wanted her since just about forever!"

Everyone else in the room looked rather taken aback. Ginny reacted first:

"I can't believe you, Ronald Weasley! You never wanted Hermione. You wanted her to do your homework and to help you along holding up your grades. You may have wanted her to show to the world Harry couldn't have everything, the fame, the money and the girl. You never even spent a moment considering loving her, and I know that Harry does. He loves her and that's why I have given up on him, because I love him and I want him to be happy! I know he can be happy with Hermione, and if it's not me he loves, then I most certainly want her with my best friend. You may not have much money, but let me tell you something, you prat: YOU are every inch as spoiled as Draco Malfoy, because that's how you behave. Arrogant, self-centred, spoiled and lazy. This is how I have learned to know you ever since you've started Hogwarts."

It was Ron's turn to be taken aback. But he got no respite, because as soon as Ginny stopped, catching her breath, the twins cut in:

"She is completely right, you know..." Fred said.

"... you are a stupid, insecure little kid..." George continued

"... you've never learned to think for yourself..."

"... and you've always relied on either us or Ginny before you came to Hogwarts."

"The moment you came to school you sucked up to Harry..."

"... and poor Harry, who never had friends before... "

"... was so thankful he never even considered the severe holes in your character..."

"... and therefore had you stuck to him with no means for him to shake you off..."

"… it's about time you start working and doing something for yourself."

But Harry started to wise up, remembering Ron's withdrawal after his name had been drawn from the Goblet of Fire and he said in a low, sad voice:

"And I should have seen it right in first year – when you claimed that Hermione had no friends. Because, actually, it was you who had no friends either, just me, and through me you had friends that didn't really see you as a friend, just as my sidekick. I'm sorry, Ron, I should have noticed earlier. Some people have learned to become my friends in the meantime, but you never really did. You just took me for granted."

He straightened up and just as Remus returned from his discussion with Molly, he said:

"Ron, Ginny is right: I love Hermione. You should have recognised that for me, it's not easy to even know what that means, because I have not been loved ever since my parents died. I did not have loving guardians and you're the first one who should know this. I never learned what it means to be cared for, that was always reserved for my cousin while I always had to fend for myself and knowing how love feels was certainly a luxury I never had. Again, you take that for granted because you have loving parents and siblings. I probably should have told Hermione two years ago, when she was lying there in that bed, petrified, because that's at least how long I've had these feelings for her, but I was never sure about them. I needed her to come clean! I would have been everything else but a brave Gryffindor and tell her, because I feared losing her friendship! And now I know that she loves me – the first one since my parents – and Sirius and Remus of course, but I didn't know about them until a year ago – who said she loved me. I never feel anything like that from you or for you."

"That's because it's totally unmanly, darn it! You don't tell your mates you love them!" Ron screamed, his face a deep shade of red.

"Who told you anything like that? Bill or Charlie? I would doubt that," Fred asked, baffled.

"That's entirely rubbish, Ron," George said at the same time.

"We tell Lee we love him – and there's not the slightest bit of sexual meaning in it. Percy even said how much he loved Oliver, even though they would have never seen it sexual."

"Just proves how immature Ron still is. Grow up, man!" Ginny said.

Remus drew his conclusions. He recognised that this was a turning point for Harry and knew that the holidays would be a good opportunity to give them both space. He suggested:

"It might be a good idea to keep a little distance between the two of you during these holidays. When you go back to Hogwarts you can start to build up your friendship new if you want to, how about that? There is just one thing I will ask from you as one of Harry's guardians, Ron, and that is not to hold Harry back anymore in the future when he wants to learn at school. To keep you as a friend he has done what he had been forced to do back before he came to Hogwarts– sell himself short academically, because his guardians would blame him if he had better marks than their own son. I have heard your biting comments when he received good marks, Ron, and Harry has immediately withdrawn into his pre-Hogwarts behaviour of selling himself short, because he didn't want to lose your friendship. You never even noticed! But if he wants to achieve more, you will hold back and not interfere, and not get angry with him when he has other plans than hanging out and doing nothing. There is much more on Harry's plate than there ever will be on yours, Ron. Sadly it is yet another thing that sets him apart from everyone else, but he needs the time he has now to get this obstacle out of the way. Once that's done he will need time to build up a very normal life like everyone else. There is absolutely no space for disloyal friends. He needs friends who stand by him no questions asked. That doesn't mean he can't be criticised or his actions and behaviour questioned. It means that none of his friends go behind his back as Pettigrew went behind ours. Harry won't trust blindly anymore. Do you understand that?"

"Heck, do you really think I want a nancy boy like that as my friend? Forget it! I don't need him!"

Ron stormed out of the kitchen and ran up the staircase, directly into Andromeda who levitated a big pile of books. The books went flying, Ron stood still for a moment, before trying to push Andromeda out of his way to dash out of the room. Remus sent an Accio charm after him, pulled him back and sat him in a chair. He said coldly:

"I was not finished yet, Ronald Weasley. The following is a warning for everyone of you NOT to go into the library until we give the all clear. If you do and if you should come to harm, neither Sirius nor I will take any responsibility, it will be your fault entirely. Is that understood as well?"

Andromeda and Sirius, having re-established an order in their book piles, entered the kitchen for good. Sirius grinned and said:

"Andi and I have just sealed the library, Moony. There is simply too much stuff that's NOT suitable for the general public. I'll come back on another day to clear out the worst of these nasty spells."

"Even better. And now you'll apologise to Madam Tonks for your absolutely rude treatment and for spilling all of the books she carried, Ron. I'm sure your mother raised you better than that, because none of your siblings would behave abominably like that!"

Ron mumbled an apology.

"You're allowed to go and sulk now, if you like, Ron," Remus said and released the boy.

Ron ran out of the room again. The twins roared, Ginny grinned, but then all of a sudden both, Fred and George, stopped.

"Did you just call Professor Lupin 'Moony', Mr. Black?" George asked.

"Yep. We used to call him that when we learned about his affliction. We went to school together with Harry's dad and that rat, Wormtail."

"Wormtail? As in 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs' Wormtail?" Fred asked.

"Yes! How do you know about that?"

"They were the ones who filched the Marauder's Map from Filch, Sirius," Harry said.

"Oh, yes, I forgot, you are the aspiring new Marauders at Hogwarts. But then - you would be pranksters yourself, wouldn't you? Your uncles left a great legacy for us to pick up, Gideon and Fabian Prewett were the stuff of legends!"

"Pardon me, who are Padfoot and Prongs if Professor Lupin is Moony?" George wanted to know.

"Me Padfoot," Sirius said, pointing at himself. "Him Moony, Harry's dad Prongs."

"Oh George, we're not worthy! It was good that we gave Harry the map!"

"Yes, brother of mine, he deserves to have it much more than we do – it was his dad's anyway!"

"Yes, but now the false Moody took it from me I have no idea where it landed!" Harry threw in.

"Don't worry, Harry, if it's still in my office I will give it back to you," Remus promised, grinning.

"Remus! You can't! You're coming back to teach!" Hermione cried.

"Oh yes, I can. Dear Hermione, we could be standing on the edge of a war. Professor Dumbledore is studying something very secret and needs every distraction we can provide. Causing a bit of mayhem at the castle will be the best form of distraction I can imagine. I'm sure Fred and George will be most helpful with that," Remus contradicted with the most serious face he could muster.

"That's the spirit, Moony. They will know where to go when they need transfigurations figured out," Sirius added and discretely pointed at himself.

Harry grinned, and even Hermione started to laugh at the Marauders' antics. The twins seemed to get the message.

"**What**? You two are coming to teach? Two **Marauders** teaching at Hogwarts? Wow! That's the greatest fun that school will ever provide!" Fred shouted. "Learning will be fu-hun!"

He, George and Ginny started a happy dance through the room and pulled Harry and Hermione along.

"Snivellus will have a stroke when he hears of this," Sirius said, hopeful.

"Not before **you** have learned to brew the Wolfsbane, Padfoot," Remus insisted.

"The recipe is public, Remus. I know, because I have already studied it. If Sirius is any good at brewing we'll take over making it for you from now on, because I'd bet that anything Snape can brew I can brew better," Hermione shouted from the dancing line.

Remus threw her an adoring glance. He knew she was brilliant and Sirius was quite strong in brewing potions, so he thought they might be able to do it. He watched the kids in silence, just happy to see them happy. Watching the five of them relieved him when he thought of the tremendous downturn Harry and Ron's friendship seemed to take. Remus knew that Harry would be quick to forgive Ron, even if he was done being a close friend of the boy, simply because Harry couldn't hold a grudge if he tried to. But he knew just as well that Ron would continue to sulk this time. If the twins and Ginny were there to replace their brother he saw much less of a problem with that. Harry had just learned that it was easy to fall on the wrong friends when one was in desperate need of one. Hogwarts still had a good number of other boys his own age he could befriend, and they needn't necessarily be Gryffindors. Maybe he would have to look outside of his own house, but that wouldn't hurt at all. Remus could have named at least seven boys and girls in the other houses who would be very good friends for Harry. He still hoped that Harry would get closer with Neville, whom he liked a lot, too. Ron on the other hand could very well find himself bereft of all or at least most of his friends.

The teens finally collapsed in a big heap, laughing happily. Harry and Hermione were pulled from the pile and asked to say goodbye. They did and promised more visits, either at Grimmauld Place or on Jersey. They also invited all the Weasley siblings present, but clearly did not extend the invitation to Ron, then they flooed back to Seaside Manor. Remus piled the books on the dining table.

"That's a first pile of books to research, Moony. Andi helped me finding some of them. But there are loads more that could hold information about these darned things."

"What 'darned things', Sirius?" Hermione asked, peering at the books with the leery look of a hungry wolf.

"Horcruxes, Hermione! The vile old ass made **Horcruxes**! And he seemingly managed to make not one or two, but **several** of them! We worked that much out with Filius."

Hermione looked something she didn't display often - puzzled.

"What are Horcruxes, please?" she asked.

"They are containers to keep pieces of one's soul. To make one you would have to know the ritual and fulfil it by committing cold-blooded murder, and you would then have to close the thing inside the container with another ritual; that's the extent of what we know of them so far. Oh, and that Harry has actually destroyed two of them, one in the Chamber of Secrets and one in the graveyard," Remus explained, short and sweet.

Hermione swallowed. Then she went into thinking mode and thought aloud:

"If he's made more than one he would probably have attempted seven. Six pieces in a Horcrux, one that he kept in himself. He would have thought the number seven to be the most powerful magical number. That's at least what we learned in Arithmancy."

"Sounds very logical, Moony," Sirius remarked and watched with fascination as Hermione continued to think aloud.

"Yes, it does. There are obviously two of them gone now. The first one was his diary, the second one was his snake, we know that possibly there is one piece in Harry…"

"**What**?" Hermione screamed.

"Yeah, my scar, if it is at all possible to make an accidental one. We think he would have made one from murdering me, but the curse bouncing off me stopped him from performing the ritual. That's why it's not sure that the scar actually is such a thing. Professor Flitwick will research if there's a way to transfer it into an inanimate object, which we can destroy. We do our part here with these books… but we're not entirely sure if Voldemort even knows about it," said Harry.

"And you stand there, staying so cool? This is horrible, Harry! I'm scared to death that this could kill you! I don't want to lose you, love!"

Hermione pulled Harry in a desperate embrace. He tried his best to sooth her, but she was not easily consoled. Harry looked at Sirius and Remus, a bit helpless, but they both smiled and said:

"Give her time."

The two of them started to look through the books for references on Horcruxes and seeing that, Hermione stepped up to the table and grabbed the next book on the pile.

"Hermione, you might have nightmares from these books! Do you really want to…" Sirius started but a very determined Hermione interrupted him:

"Yes, I really do want to go through them. This is not a game, Sirius, this is about mine and Harry's happiness for the rest of our lives! I will leave no stone unturned to find a solution to this problem, one which does not endanger the life of my beloved. If there is one thing I do well, it's research!"

Both, Remus and Sirius watched her with eyes wide opened. They were impressed by the passion she displayed. But Sirius still tried to joke:

"I thought immediately that there's a volcano under that prim outside, Remus! Does she remind you of Lily or does she remind you of Lily?"

Remus chuckled, but he felt respect for that young woman. At fifteen years of age she was more mature than many of her much older contemporaries.

"Yes, she does, actually. Lily would have done the same for James and Harry. In fact she died for Harry, as James died for Lily and Harry, so… something about passion, was it?"

Harry had taken a seat, taken aback by that much love displayed for him. He still stared at Hermione, open mouthed, and swallowed audibly.

"I love you, too, Hermione," he whispered.

She smiled at him. Then she turned to her book, but before they really started to read, Harry told Hermione what the three men had discussed with Filius Flitwick earlier in the afternoon. She was interested and asked a few questions about that suspected block on Harry's magic. That reminded Sirius to go to the desk in the library to write a note to Gringotts, asking for a meeting with the Potter family account manager. He sent it off with Hedwig, who was happy to take out a letter. She returned a few hours later with an invitation for the next day.

They ate a very nice dinner, courtesy of Dobby, who finally learned to sit at a table with them without being ordered to do so. He was still most amazed that not only did anyone ask for his opinion to the subjects discussed at the table, but that they took them with beamed when she noticed it. Remus and Sirius looked at each other and immediately decided they would have to have a lengthy discussion with the young lady about what was good for house-elves and what would do more damage to them than help them.

After dinner Hermione returned home, only to be back half an hour later with an overnight bag.

"Mum and dad have been invited out somewhere, professionally, so I suggested I come back and sleep here, because they said they would be home late. They shared my opinion that I'd be better off here amongst you guys than alone at home."

Harry beamed and pulled her in a hug. She kissed him and asked:

"Mind if I make myself comfortable?"

"Not at all, love. Let me take your satchel up for you!"

The teens left for the stairs and the Marauders allowed themselves a good laugh.

"How I'd love to share that laugh with James and Lily, Moony. They'd enjoy that as much as we do, wouldn't they?"

"Yes, I think they would, Paddy. These youngsters are absolutely sweet. It is my deepest hope that we can guide them through these next months alive and well, healthy and sound of mind. I want them to enjoy the long life Lily and James should have had together."

Sirius sighed.

"We got this far, Moony, I think we'll manage the rest of the path to that moment. And we should try our darndest to get through ourselves, not only for our own sakes' but for Harry's as well. He would break if he lost someone else. Especially if it was one of us, or worse, Hermione. I have watched him all day today, and I'm telling you, that boy is deeply in love, even if he doesn't understand the full depth of it yet. He will do, and soon."

Harry carried Hermione's bag up to her room. She followed him and got a better look at the decoration of the house. Mostly it was wainscoted, the panels painted in cream, and pastel paints on the upper walls. In the staircase and on the corridor of the first floor she saw picture rails and along the wall were a good number of portraits, some of which seemed to be sentient ones, catcalling when they passed to the next part of the staircase. Hermione grinned.

"Do you know who they are?"

"Not yet. The house belonged to Sirius' uncle Alphard. Seems to have been his mother's younger brother. He left Sirius the house - and some gold as well, as it seems."

"Has Sirius talked about his family?"

"Not much. He told me that his other uncle had three daughters, one of them is Mrs Malfoy! Doesn't like her a bit, he said. And her one sister is that Bellatrix Lestrange he mentioned when we met him at the cave, you remember?"

"Oh yes. Nice relatives he has, the poor guy…" Hermione mumbled.

"Horrible. The two sisters do have an older sister, the one we met this afternoon, and Sirius says she's very nice and that he really loves her."

"She sounded very nice, in any case. Can hardly believe that she's supposed to be Draco's aunt."

"He doesn't know her. She's been thrown out of the family when she had the audacity to marry a Muggle-born wizard. They have a daughter who's an Auror. My grandmother was also a relative of Sirius', a great-aunt of his, I think, so we're related, too. Sirius said that almost all pureblood families are interrelated."

"Well, if the genetic pool is drying out..."

"Just seen from the biological point of view these people are getting dumb and dumber. They have no idea how these genetics work and that they are harming the quality of their blood and power rather than helping it if they continue to intermarry. There are many families who aren't exactly pureblood anymore, but are so old that no one would dare not calling them purebloods, the Weasleys, Longbottoms, Bones and others come to mind, the Potters, too, for that matter. There has always been a Muggle, or a Muggle-born here and there in the family and as they intermarried with families of any kind of origin they have kept their magic and blood much stronger. It's amazing how many stupid kids are in Slytherin. They're meant to be cunning and ambitious, but most of them lack either the intellectual capacity or the magical power to be anything but average because of the inbreeding."

"You're absolutely right. And before we started they only got the House Cup all the time because Snape gave it to them by deducting massive amounts of points from the other houses and awarding his massive amounts of points not caring whether they deserved it or not."

They arrived at the top of the stairs and Harry led Hermione to her room. It was a very lovely room, cool light blue colours mixed with cream.

"Wow, this is gorgeous!" Hermione whispered.

"Looks like you like it?" Harry smirked.

"It's like someone knew my favourite colours, Harry. I love this room."

"Well, it wasn't me, I'm sorry to admit, because it's been done before I came home. I know they had these two rooms and their own bedroom refurbished. Someone must have known you quite well..."

"I might have mentioned my colour preferences in one of my letters to Remus..." she admitted, blushing, "but naturally I never thought he'd ever do up a room for me to use, using them."

Harry grinned. Then he asked:

"You were corresponding with Remus?"

"Yes, ever since he had to leave Hogwarts. We talked about lots of things. His letters were often very funny, too. I always thought him to be so serious, but he has made me laugh quite a few times."

Harry left Hermione so she could change and went back down to the living room, where Sirius and Remus both sat comfortably and read themselves through some of the books they brought back from the Black house. Remus looked up and explained:

"In a first triage we have separated the books with the most probable useful information on this pile, those with no direct information on the one on the floor and the ones with some mentioning of the Horcruxes, which we have now named Dastardly Evil Things or abbreviated DET, so we won't name them accidentally in public. This is the main pile not yet looked through."

Remus pointed to the respective piles of books. Harry found them all impressionably high. He sat down, picked one book up and asked:

"So, how are you going about this?"

"I've created a pile of markers. Check through the books, some even contain glossaries or at least chapter information, then we just fly through them searching for the keyword Horcruxes. Mark the pages. After that we'll go through them methodically. For now it's just about marking the quotations, after that we'll read."

Sirius showed Harry the spell through which he'd have it easier to find the keyword and Harry proceeded to help. Five minutes later Hermione received the same instructions and helped as well. Occasionally one of them cast the search spell, but otherwise it was quiet while they worked in a concentrated way to go through the books. Hermione enjoyed the feeling very much and even Harry didn't mind that there wasn't much to hear.

Remus sent a Patronus message to Filius that they were starting on the research with a first batch of books. Barely half an hour later the cheerful tiny professor arrived by floo. Before sitting down he looked around and admired the surrounding.

"Oh, what a delightful home! I wouldn't swap that with your ancestral home either, Sirius."

Sirius grinned. He offered Filius a seat around the table and a glass of Bordeaux. Filius sat down and thanked for the wine.

"Lovely, thank you, Sirius!"

It didn't take Filius long to be perfectly happily involved with the reading. The five kept exchanging opinions on details they read. Harry was certainly the most challenged of them, but even he found some interesting details.

Remus found the most important bit they had in the books that evening:

"There's something – a full description of a Horcrux created in the 18th century…"

He began to read the few paragraphs.

"… and here it is: the dastardly piece was exposed to a hammer, forged to perfection by the Goblins. Used with force on the item the Horcrux emitted a terrifying scream. It was flattened and the feeling of dread while lifting it was gone…"

"Doesn't that sound exactly like your Horcruxes, Harry? The scream… Only, you seem to have destroyed yours with Basilisk venom and the living Horcrux was even eliminated with simple Reductor curses?" Filius inquired.

"Yes, that's exactly how it worked."

"So – Goblin made items seem to be a way to get rid of them. Basilisk venom works, sometimes even a simple explosive curse can be enough..." said Flitwick in a low voice.

"There's something these things all have in common," Sirius remarked. "In that they're all destroyed to complete annihilation."

"Yes, that seems to be the recurring theme. Anything would do that destroys the container completely. But from where do we get the tools?""But – the carcass of that Basilisk is still down there in the Chamber of Secrets. What stops us from going there and seeing if any of the venom is still there? As far as I know Basilisks, like Dragons, don't decay fast at all," Hermione remarked.

Sirius, Remus and Filius looked up and groaned.

"I never thought of that! Frankly, I don't know the whole story, but I've heard about the Basilisk after all. Should have wondered what happened to it," said Filius.

"Because our esteemed headmaster hushed it up?" Harry asked back.

"Don't you think that some people might have gone and harvested it? A beast like that is worth a lot of money," Sirius asked.

"Not on this occasion, Sirius. I'm the only one apart from Voldemort who can get in. You need to be a Parselmouth to be able to go down. – Though Fawkes might have been able to take someone down…" Harry countered. "And something else just comes to mind, too. The Sword of Gryffindor – it's in the headmaster's office now, isn't that one Goblin made, Hermione?"

"You know, I think it is."

"Well, we'd have a sure fire way then. Both possibilities work, all we have to do is find the DETs now."

"DETs?" Flitwick and Hermione inquired.

"Dastardly Evil Things!" The other three around the table chorused and laughed.

"We've created the acronym, so we wouldn't talk about them accidentally in public. We believe, that the term 'Horcrux' should not find entrance into the common vocabulary," Remus added.

"Ah! Very wise, indeed."

As soon as he had mentioned the phoenix there was a flash and an excited trill announced the firebird. Harry had to grin. This was now the second time that the phoenix had turned up as soon as he'd said his name.

"Hello, Fawkes!" Harry greeted the bird who happily sat on the table, awaiting his share of caresses. Harry made the start, but Sirius and Remus followed suit as they had known the phoenix quite well from all the times they were at the headmaster's office when they were at school.

Hermione had only seen the phoenix once before from afar, when it had delivered Cedric and Harry back at the Maze. She sat there with her mouth hanging open.

"Wow, he's beautiful…" she whispered.

Fawkes turned around and pushed his chest out, scrutinising Hermione, then he moved closer to her. She lifted her hand and caressed his chest. She noticed quickly that he seemed to enjoy that a lot. The men around the table grinned.

"And he knows he's beautiful, Hermione, believe me, he's terribly vain. Loves to be admired, he does," Filius said.

"He understands every word you say, too, Hermione," Harry added.

"So, you heard Harry calling your name, Fawkes?" Hermione asked.

The bird bobbed its head and trilled again.

"Could you take us back to the Chamber of Secrets, Fawkes?" Harry asked.

Another nod from Fawkes. Filius looked impressed.

"Has anyone asked you to be taken there since our fight against the Basilisk, Fawkes?"

This time there was an angry trill and a vehement shaking of the bird's head.

"I take it that someone has tried then, but you refused?" Filius asked.

Fawkes bobbed his head.

"That's most interesting. I don't think I will need to ask who that was."

"We'll prepare to go down there then to see what's left of that snake. It shouldn't be too difficult to lure Dumbledore out of the castle for a few hours. I'm sure I can get Minerva's support for that," Remus suggested.

"I don't think we even need to do that – I think it's enough to wait until he's down in the place where he keeps Voldemort," Sirius intervened. "As long as we get in there unnoticed we shouldn't have a problem with him. I'm quite sure that once we're in that chamber we're off the Hogwarts spying network."

"True – we should be. That's fine then. Would you come and take us if we call you, Fawkes?"

Fawkes confirmed that and vanished back to Hogwarts.

"What an amazing bird," Hermione remarked.

"That he is. And he's also a very nice fellow, always friendly!" Harry confirmed.

"I wonder how Albus reacted to that refusal to take him down to the Basilisk," Remus said.

"So do I, Remus. Quite frankly I'm astonished he even refuses anything to Albus," Filius replied.

Sirius looked at the clock on the mantelpiece and said:

"It's getting quite late – anyone for a cup of tea to wrap up the evening?"

"That would be wonderful," Remus said and called for Dobby.

A few minutes later they all had a steaming cup of tea in their hands and leaned back in their chairs. Hermione heard her mobile phone and stood up from the table to fetch her purse and answer the call.

"Hi Mum! We're just having tea and will probably be off to bed in a moment. Was it a nice party?"

"The usual business bore. That's why we're so early. Just wanted to see if you were still up and wish you a good night, sweetheart."

"I'm fine, Mum, goodnight to you, too, and to Dad. Just a quick question before you go: did you and Dad plan something for the weekend?"

"We did – to spend it with you!"

"That's fine then. Would you like to spend it here on Jersey Island?"

"Wow! Is that an invitation?"

"Yes! You wanted to get to know Sirius and Remus better, so they thought you could come and spend the weekend here – so you can see where I will probably spend a good part of my summer."

"Thank them for us! We'd be happy to come!"

"Great, I'll tell them. We talk tomorrow evening!"

Flitwick stared at the little device in Hermione's hand.

"That's so much better than floo…" he whispered. "How does this work?"

Hermione thought: 'Typical Ravenclaw,' and smiled.

"Muggle technology is very advanced, compared to the magical stuff, Professor Flitwick! This works with a little transmitter and receiver – voice is changed to radio signals, transmitted to the other party and back from the other party. In this little thing is a whole computer. I can save my numbers and get them out on pressing the few buttons I've allocated to each saved number, called a speed dial. Like this one is my Mum's and this one my Dad's, they each have their own mobile phone."

Flitwick looked baffled. He stared at the phone, then he looked over to Remus and Sirius:

"Do you understand any of this?"

"The regular telephone system, yes, but I've yet to start looking into the newer technologies," Sirius answered.

"Yes, I do understand this. I have actually worked in the telecommunication business for a long while," Remus said.

"You did?"

"Gave me a chance to work shifts and thus take off on the critical days – or better: nights and days…" Remus explained.

"Ah, I understand," Filius said.

"In any case they're constantly working on making these little things better. They have all sorts of functions already, and I expect them to become full little computers one day. Personal computers have come a long way lately and have been expanded in leaps and bounds in their functionality," Hermione explained.

"What is a computer, dear?" Filius asked.

He almost forgot to drink his tea while Hermione explained. The little Professor was highly interested in the technology and as Hermione gave him examples where computers were used and what they could do, he sat there open-mouthed and swallowed it all.

"Dear me! I don't think that Professor Burbage even has the slightest idea about all of these things. With all this I wouldn't be astonished if the Muggles were able to leave the earth and fly to the moon or something…" he cried.

The other four just started to grin. Filius stared some more.

"What? Have I missed something?"

"Boy, oh boy, have you missed something, Professor," Harry now threw in. "The first human being, Neil Armstrong, set his foot on the soil of the moon on 21st July 1969. Over 25 years ago. He was swiftly followed by his fellow astronaut Edwin Aldrin and the two enjoyed a walk on the moon that lasted about three hours. They had been taken out of the earth's orbit by a Saturn V rocket, travelled the 380'000 km to the moon, where their landing equipment was separated from the mother-ship and they landed on the moon's surface while the mother-ship stayed on its orbit around the moon. On their walk they collected moon dust and a few kilos of stones. They set up a few experiments and returned to their little spaceship, left the moon and were reunited with the mother-ship that took them back to the earth's orbit. Only a tiny part of the whole setup that had left the earth ten days before returned. They came down in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and were picked up and brought back to the USA by ship. There were a few more flights before the Apollo program was stopped and later replaced by different other manned space excursions, but so far none to the moon anymore. And this flight was only the tip of the iceberg of all the flights into space since the Russians launched their first satellite, the Sputnik, in 1957."

"You should tell that to Madams Burbage and Sinistra, Hermione!" said Professor Flitwick, completely in awe. "This is amazing! There we have wizards who believe the Muggles are stupid and backward and you tell me they have been to places we could never go! How could they breathe there? There is no air on the moon, is there?"

"No, the moon has no atmosphere. Gravity is much less strong there, everything is six times lighter than on earth. They had their oxygen in a tank on the back. As far as I know they even had a technology to regenerate the oxygen. Something similar to an aqualung; it was just one with the added recycling of the oxygen. You might have heard of these. They're used so divers can go under water for longer periods. Oxygen is compressed in aqualungs," Hermione explained.

"No, I haven't heard of those either. But then, I usually do lead a fairly sheltered life, so I don't get out much. I could listen to these things forever though!"

"I think I'll have to donate lots of books and magazines to Hogwarts, Hermione," proposed Harry.

"That's a very good idea, Harry. When I made the mistake of taking Muggle Studies, because I wanted to see how the magicals perceive the Muggles, I was flabbergasted how far backwards the course was. Later on I learned that the teacher was a pureblood and it was instantly clear to me why it was such a useless class. It's no wonder wizards don't understand Muggles at all. I will have to start a campaign that Muggle born students don't lose their roots and start to live a combination of both lifestyles once they leave Hogwarts," Hermione said.

"You do that, Miss Granger, you do that!"

It was time to wrap up the day's book rummage and then the tiny Professor bade the others goodnight and left. Harry and Hermione wished Remus and Sirius a good night, too, and went up. They shared the bath to brush their teeth and wash their faces. Then they snuggled and went to bed in their rooms.

The next morning Sirius took Harry back to Gringotts. Remus and Hermione went along for company. They were greeted by the Potters' account manager, a Goblin named Sharpclaw and started to discuss the family's assets. Harry learned a lot that morning. First of all, he now knew what he was 'worth' and was shocked by the sheer mass of his wealth. He had tears running down his cheeks when he told Sirius:

"You know, I'd part with all of this to have Mum and Dad back…"

"I know, son. But now that you have it you know that you will fall soft – if you should ever fall. Of course you can't access your big vault before you're seventeen, but your trust vault is refilled to its content of 50'000 Galleons every year, whether you have used it up or only taken a few hundred out of it. You would have to throw away a lot of money to use that much in a year. In fact it's far more than a family of four usually needs."

"Yeah, I know. It's calming, but still – it's so much!"

"Old inherited wealth, Harry..."

"Did my parents have a will?" Harry asked.

"Of course they had. It was wartime and left and right there were people attacked and killed. We all set up a will to provide for the possible case of our deaths. I was one of the witnesses on the testament. A copy of it was certainly deposited here at Gringotts, wasn't it? The original was actually left with the family barrister."

"Yes, as a matter of fact I have the authorised copy here," Sharpclaw remarked.

He brought out the document and Sirius read it first. His eyes widened.

"This will has been altered…" he cried out.

"What?" The Goblin was shocked.

"I know for a fact that apart from myself there were five other people on the list of possible guardians for Harry. It was I, the Longbottoms, the McKinnons and then Minerva McGonagall. But here Minerva and the Longbottoms are missing! Additionally James and Lily decreed that under no circumstances was Harry to be raised by her bigot sister and brother-in-law! That was Dumbledore. He had a copy only, but probably didn't know it was a copy. Can I send a quick owl, please? I'd like to ask for the original certified copy of the will from the barrister."

Sharpclaw offered Sirius the use of a desk, where parchment and quills were available and called for a Gringotts owl. As soon as Sirius signed his letter the Goblin handed it to the owl and it flew off.

Harry was shocked as well. He started to wonder about Dumbledore. The revelations since the day before became a bit much for him. Hermione sat next to him and quietly held his hand, supporting him with her presence alone.

"What interest could Professor Dumbledore have to cross possible guardians from the Potters' will?" she asked.

"Well, let's say it looks very suspicious and in connection with the Prophecy it becomes very, very fishy. I suspect that he wanted to hone Harry to become a bit of a weapon, even if he has no real will to actually train him. And that smells like he wants to set him up to sacrifice himself willingly. I'm quite sure he knows about that thing in Harry's head and wants to exploit it for his 'greater good'. He weighs Harry's life against the lives of the rest of the wizarding world and believes it can be sacrificed if all else profit. I'm getting angrier every day about his actions," Remus said. "I would say he would have known about the Dursleys' antagonistic views on magic. Lily never kept quiet about their attitude. Having a hard life before he came to Hogwarts would send Harry straight into his grandfatherly caring hands. He'd have Harry pliable and open to his manipulations. The more isolated he kept Harry, the easier his manipulations could take place. It must be really unfortunate for him that Sirius actually managed to free himself. He's had to let go of you, Harry, because he couldn't have stricken Sirius' name from the will, that would have been very suspicious indeed. It was well known that Sirius was first in line for guardianship for you. Who knows if he didn't have a hand in keeping Sirius in Azkaban without a trial. He could always claim that he had no idea about the switch. Sirius and James have played right into his hands with that one."

"That sounds about right, now that you mention it. I bought his grandfatherly attitude, hook, line and sinker, too. Darn it!" Hermione hissed.

"You've had a great belief in authority figures, Hermione, his acting certainly had the desired effect on you," Remus said.

"Yes, I know, but my belief in authority figures was just about shattered when they made Harry actually compete in that stupid tournament! Binding magical contract, when he hadn't even written on the slip of parchment himself, my foot! That would have never bound him, I'm sure," Hermione groused.

"You certainly learned from it, Hermione, and you'll judge before you trust in future. Even authority figures are sometimes very much imperfect. You are entitled to criticise a teacher, too, you know. Just because they're older than you and have more experience doesn't give them the right to mistreat you. Besides, even if they **are** authority figures, what teachers do is providing a service, and any service provider can be judged according to the quality of the service they provide," Sirius said softly.

"Yes, I'll know to look twice in future. And to remain critical."

"But now we'd like to have Harry tested for magical blocks, sir. Could we consult one of your curse breakers?" Sirius turned back to the Goblin.

"Yes, of course. We have one that's especially good – he's even a human, William Weasley. He has just relocated from Egypt back to London."

"We know him. If he's available we would be happy to have him perform the spells," Sirius said.

"I will have someone call him in."

When Bill arrived he was astonished to find Harry there. He was sat down and Sirius explained their suspicion that Harry's magic was restricted by binding spells. Bill cast a few diagnostic spells and then blanched.

"I'm afraid that's all too true. Apart from the blocks there's also a very suspicious reading coming from your scar, Harry," Bill said.

"Yes, I know. We know what it is, but not yet how to get it out. It's actually a piece of Voldemort's soul…" Harry replied.

"A piece of… a Horcrux?" Bill whispered, horrified.

"You know of them?" Harry asked. "Would you know how to get this out?"

"No, but I know where to find information about that. How the hell did you end up with a piece of You-Know-Who's soul?"

"When the Killing Curse bounced off me and killed him it must have happened," Harry said.

"I'll not rest before I have found a way to get this out of you, Harry! And trust me that while I'll leave no stone unturned no one else will hear about it. How many people know of this?"

"Just we here and Professor Flitwick."

"Good! Let's keep it that way, please, okay?"

"For sure! What about the blocks? Can you lift those?"

"Yes, I can. But you'd be better if you were at your home when I do that."

"Fine – come to our place then?"

"Grimmauld?"

"No, Bill, I'd be happier if we could do it on Jersey Island," Sirius interrupted and gave Bill the specifics.

"Fine. I'll be there tonight. I can see how you would keep that to yourself, too. If it was Dumbledore who shouldered Harry with these blocks I don't think I'd want him to know that they've been lifted."

Bill left and they waited for a reply from the barrister. The owl returned and actually had a copy of the original will on her talons. Sirius unrolled it and presented it to the Goblin. It was exactly as he had said. Remus looked livid.

"That is clearly Dumbledore's work. He was the only one who would have had access to the copy of the will in the Potters' house. He deliberately forced Harry into a dreadful childhood, not even checking up on him ever! It's blatantly clear that he didn't wish for Harry to be informed of anything about his world, his family, even himself!"

There were two more positions on the original will; exactly as Sirius had said there was a list of possible guardians for Harry, should he still be a minor at the time of James and Lily's deaths. The list contained all the names Sirius had mentioned.

"Obviously he also scratched the Longbottoms; they were only attacked about half a year later. Just wait until Minerva hears of this, she'll scratch his face something awful," Sirius said.

"Yes, she told me she never approved of Harry's placement. It's clear that she didn't know she was listed as a possible guardian," Remus confirmed.

"I want to be there when she learns of this," Hermione said.

Harry filled his purse with money before they left the bank and they strolled through Diagon Alley for a bit of shopping. Sirius offered them an ice cream at Fortescue's. They took seats outside under a lovely parasol and enjoyed their ice cream, watching all the people bustling around the street. Some people who passed still stopped and stared when they saw Sirius. But a few would actually stop and talk to him. Most of them were friendly. Sirius himself didn't trust the people in the street yet. He was open minded enough to reply cheerfully - or just polite if it was someone he hadn't known before. At some point a man stopped abruptly and turned around when he recognised Sirius.

"Sirius! I'm so glad that I meet you! I tried to send you an owl, but it came back unopened..."

"Hi Roger. My house isn't publicly reachable, but I can send one to you to accompany yours... If your owl has found it once it will find it again after that."

"That would be very welcome, thanks. I have to admit that I belong to the mass of people who couldn't believe what they said about you, but felt obliged to, because there was no other information available. Probably also because I knew that Remus believed it, too. I can't tell you how sorry I am! And I want to apologise for not meddling, or at least trying to meddle."

"It's in the past, Roger, I accept your apology. Did you ever meet my godson, Harry?"

"No, I don't have any children old enough to go to Hogwarts yet, so he's not been talked about much in my household."

"Well, let me introduce you then. This is James' son Harry, Roger. Harry, this is Roger Murgatroyd, he was also in my year at Hogwarts, in Hufflepuff. He was a prefect, like Remus, and also like Remus he closed most eyes when we were busy on his watch," said Sirius, with a big grin on his face.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Potter. Or am I allowed to call you Harry?"

"Harry, please. Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Murgatroyd. This is my girlfriend, Hermione Granger."

Mr. Murgatroyd exchanged pleasantries with Hermione, before Sirius asked:

"Are you still working for the Ministry, Roger?"

"Yep. Finance department. Dead boring, but someone has to do the job. I'm on my way back to the office actually. Thanks for sending an owl, Sirius, would be lovely to keep the contact alive! Have a nice day, everyone!"

On the way home Sirius told the others about Roger Murgatroyd, how he had been one of their friends from the other houses. It was the first time Harry noticed that the Marauders had been very popular boys in their time at Hogwarts, and not only with members of Gryffindor, but with many other students from other houses as well.

"How many were there in your year, Sirius?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, some seventy or more? How many were we, Remus?"

"I don't remember everyone, of course, and quite a few died in the war, but when we graduated I think we were about eighty. Almost double of your year's class, Hermione. You are one of what? Nine or ten muggle-borns? In our year there were thirty something muggle-born students," Remus said.

"Wow... did you get to know any Slytherins?"

"Sure. Not all of them became Death Eaters. Even they usually knew it was their own choice. But old Slughorn, the Potions master of our time and head of Slytherin House treated everyone nice. He only treated a few even a bit nicer, but they were just his favourite students and they came from all the houses. He had a habit of collecting 'names' - and he loved every student who did well in Potions, like your mum, Harry. Lily was his star pupil - much to Severus' annoyance."

In the evening Bill came through the fireplace from Grimmauld Place and brought not only his curse-breaking skills, but also a bit of background information regarding the Horcruxes.

"It's very hard to find any literature on Horcruxes at all. I have come across them in Egypt, where they were actually invented in their experiments to find immortality for their pharaohs. So I have brought you something I found there – a papyrus with the tiniest slither of useful information."

Sirius, Remus and Filius, who had come back again in the afternoon to continue their research, were looking at the hieroglyphs with wonderment. None of them could actually decipher them, but Bill explained some of the cartouches on the papyrus. It was very faded and that was quickly explained by its age.

"As you know I've just spent a few years on the search for treasures in Egypt. That means I had to learn a lot about ancient Egypt and its use of magic as well as the regular Egyptian history. I've gone into many details, much too many to elaborate here. This here is the Book of the Dead of one Tenifi, who was a high priestess in the last decade of 1100 BC. She lived in Thebes. Not many Books of the Dead have withstood the time, so this one is not only a rarity, it's extremely valuable. The Muggles are paying a lot of money for things like that. As you might know the ancient Egyptians lived and died with an immense cult around death. They were obsessed about the afterlife and providing their dead with all the means to getting along in the afterlife. Now the Book of the Dead came to life first as texts spelled out on the walls of tombs of the pharaohs, later, when it was available for a larger circle of people it changed to being written on the sarcophagus and even on the bandages of the mummies. Around the 18th dynasty it came to life in form of papyrus scrolls. Once they started writing on the papyrus they placed it in the sarcophagus with the mummy. The book contains a large number of hymns, spells and instructions to allow the deceased passage to and life in the afterlife. Because there were many horrible tests before they could get there. One purpose was sort of a negative credo, which listed all the things the deceased had not committed in life. The most feared test was the weighing of the heart of the deceased against the feather of Maat. Only when it was lighter the deceased would pass to the afterlife and be allowed an eternal life of happiness. One part of the book consisted of spells to allow the deceased to travel between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The deceased had to recite the verses that claimed he or she had lived a good life before the heart is weighed. Many were obviously very afraid of this part, because if the judgment turned the deceased down, there was the chimeric creature Ammut waiting to devour the deceased. This creature was a mixture of a crocodile, lion and hippopotamus, no wonder it was so much feared by the Egyptians. And that's the part where the Horcrux comes to play. They were looking for a way to practically bypass this process by keeping a foothold in life, without having to actually pass through the judgment. The problem is that the Horcruxes do not allow them into the afterlife, they only bind the otherwise deceased to this plane of existence, which is why the Egyptians themselves soon gave up on it. But naturally someone's found the spell, as some humans are wont to do and used it for their own nefarious purposes," Bill explained.

He found that he had a very interested audience; even Harry watched him and listened to him with baited breath.

"Is the spell to create a Horcrux actually in there?" Hermione asked.

"Not word by word. It's just mentioned, but it's led me to other spells. The Muggles of course have no idea that these are real spells. They actually do call them spells, but they don't know that these would actually do something if cast by a magical person. Magic users have drawn some ideas from these spells early on, that's why most of this has been forgotten in our society for hundreds of years. It's become kind of a myth for most people. And today 999 out of a Thousand people would probably ask you what the hell a Horcrux is. And that's good. In fact the magical world knows less about these things than the Muggle archaeologists do."

"Then we know about the origins, but we know neither how to make one nor how to destroy one…" Harry wondered.

"We do have sources about Horcruxes from Egypt. This one here for example: it's a scroll about a man who had created a Horcrux – he had murdered and placed the soul fragment into a small statuette. When he died he wasn't fully dead. He was buried and all, but there was a spirit that was bound to the earth through his Horcrux. It is an interesting scroll, because it shows us the whole ritual that was needed to create him a new body. This must be what You-Know-Who has done – or better attempted: a bath in a specially created potion, these cartouches here contain the horrendous recipe, a rudimentary life form, for which the origins are not written down, at least not in sources I have found, which is then placed in the potion, with the added ingredients of a close relative, a willing servant and a foe."

"Must be, because there was a container with a bubbling potion waiting. I suppose that's what they intended. And Nagini told me that these were the still missing ingredients," Harry confirmed, nodding. "And he is in the state of that horrible rudimentary life form you mention right now."

"That is one of about three known means of resurrection. I suppose he didn't have much to go by either, so he would have used whatever was known."

"Bill, do you know if he needs to have the Horcrux with him to be able to execute the ritual?" Hermione asked.

"No, he doesn't need it at all. It can be anywhere; as long as it exists it binds him to earth in some sort of a form. Though if he's been killed by the bouncing curse his body is utterly destroyed and he has to rebuild a completely new one."

Harry nodded again.

"That's why Dumbledore was glad we hadn't attempted to kill him. He can't be killed then, before these Horcruxes are neutralised," he said.

"You say Horcruxes – plural?"

"I have already destroyed two of them, so there must be a number of them around. If I have one in my scar then that would mean he couldn't be killed unless I die, too."

"You have destroyed two of them?"

"How much did you hear about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Only that my baby sister seems to have been possessed and used to let the Basilisk out of it to attack. And of course, that you saved her and killed the Basilisk. She told me about that part more often than I found healthy."

"That's more than most people know, Bill. The means to possess her was an enchanted diary, which used to belong to Tom Riddle. He became Lord Voldemort later on. Riddle had made this Horcrux when he was about sixteen; the soul fragment in there was the memory of his sixteen years old self. He almost succeeded in becoming alive again. He was actually trying to gain Ginny's life essence and she would have died, while he would have gained a new body for himself. Nicely rejuvenated he would have been, too. When I got there he looked still translucent, but the longer I was there the more he looked solid, until Fawkes threw the diary in my hands and I used the Basilisk fang still full of poison to destroy the diary. It oozed out what seemed like litres of ink and screamed something horribly. The same scream I heard when Cedric and I killed the snake in that graveyard. When I told Dumbledore what happened he looked like he understood…"

"We should probably exchange information about them with Albus after all," Filius remarked.

The others agreed. Bill's extensive knowledge would be highly welcome and he agreed to accompany them to Hogwarts on one of the next days.

"That would be fine with the Goblins as long as I can charge it to the research order on Harry's account…" he remarked, grinning.

"That's fine, Bill, just bill it to the Potter family account. I'm pretty sure we can give Albus a lot of information he may not be able to access," Sirius confirmed.

"Great. I'll have to inform my supervisor and Bloodaxe about this, too, they will want to know what we know about You-Know-Who's Horcruxes. And who knows, they might be able to help us finding them! So let's think about all the information I was able to gather regarding the reading in your head, Harry. It's not much, mind you, but there is a hint at a Horcrux in a living being. Yours might have been created by accident, but it's there and we have to find a way to get it out of there without killing you. Of course there's the chance that any killing would actually only kill the soul fragment in your head, leaving you alive, but personally I wouldn't want to take that chance."

"Since we've found out about these dastardly things I've actually thought that's what Dumbledore had in mind for Harry. Setting him up to fight Voldemort without a real fighting chance, so that he might survive on that idea…" Sirius grumbled.

"Do you really think so? Though – considering the block on Harry's magic he's placed – I would expect that to be true then."

"Harry's magic had been blocked?" Filius asked, shocked.

"Massively. When I free it up I think Harry will have at least half of his power back if not more. I was wondering, Sirius, you knew Harry before his parents were killed. Did Harry show any special power at all?"

Remus and Sirius looked at each other and grinned at once. Remus told the story:

"Just after his first birthday. Dumbledore knows nothing about it, by the way, and I'm sure that James and Lily never had any blocks on him at all, though he did some stuff from the moment he was sat in a high chair. But this particular thing was spectacular. He wanted Padfoot there, but Sirius was talking with James and didn't look around for a while. Harry squealed once or twice and when he didn't get the attention he wanted there wasn't a squeal anymore, but the bark of a tiny puppy! Not only was he a puppy, but one that looked exactly like Sirius' Animagus form in miniature format."

They all laughed about that image, even Harry. But Bill agreed that this was quite extraordinary power!

"Yes, but it doesn't mean he can repeat that now. It was the typical manifestation of something a magical baby wants and can't get though in his case it was an amazing sign of the power potential that's in him. Both, Lily and James, were extraordinarily good students, they had some of the highest scores in our year's NEWTs. From what I've heard, Harry's marks are good, but not outstanding. That may come partly from the block, but most probably there's another cause and that's in his upbringing. I don't suppose your uncles were impressed when you had good marks, Harry, were they?" Remus asked.

"Not at all. I wasn't allowed to be better than Dudley was. And since Dudley was one of the really dumb kids in the class that was quite difficult. I suppose underperforming was a bit of a case of preventing physical attacks on me. And then at Hogwarts Ron became my first friend and he really hates working for school, and learning. I didn't want to lose him as a friend, so I went along with him for the most part. The friend was too important."

"Was?" Bill asked.

"It's not any longer, I'm afraid. He's really behaved horribly during the last school year, so we're certainly taking at least a time-out. Sorry, he's your youngest brother, Bill, but..."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Harry, I know what you mean. Ron's a bit of an embarrassment for the whole family at the moment, you know. But now let me get at those blocks. They're not too difficult to remove."

Harry was sat on a comfortable armchair and asked to relax. Bill cast a few complex charms and spells and left Harry not only in a daze, but completely exhausted. Sirius helped him out of his chair and up to his room where he sank into his bed and slept immediately. Sirius returned downstairs and told the others.

"He'll probably have a sleep-in tomorrow and he may encounter a heavy head just like a hangover," Bill warned with a grin.

"Poor Harry," Hermione said. "He's really hit with everything horrible you can imagine. – What do you think, Bill, would there be a way to transfer that Horcrux in his scar into a container and then destroy the container?"

"As far as I know it takes a series of preparation spells to make something into a container. But if we find something about moving one from one container to another, then I'd think it should be possible."

"Very creative thought, Miss Granger. I do think that's our best approach!" Flitwick agreed.

"Well, we'll dive back into the Black vaults then, Filius. We can go tomorrow morning and dig out every book that might contain information about the actual creation of a Horcrux. With the number of references we already found in the books in our library I should expect more in the vault."

"Well, then that concludes what we can do tonight, I suppose. Shall I be back tomorrow evening?" Flitwick asked.

"Yes, please, Filius. Not only can you help us a great deal, we love to have you!"

Wishing each other good night the party dissolved and Hermione walked up the stairs with Sirius and Remus until they left her to continue to the second floor.

"Thank you for that wonderful room, Remus and Sirius. I was floored when I saw it."

Remus grinned.

"We thought you'd love it. We could make up one of the remaining bedrooms for your parents when they come at the weekend. They're still quite unchanged and a bit dusty."

"I'd love to help!"

"Done deal then. We can do it with Dobby while Sirius turns his vault upside down."

"I like the image coming up in my head: Sirius digging through mountains of coins for the books that might be somewhere in there..." Hermione said with a grin.

"Ha ha," said Sirius und pouted.

They laughed, wished each other a good night and then left to prepare themselves for bed. Once out of the bath, Hermione went to take a quick look at Harry, but the boy slept peacefully. Satisfied she closed the door again and went to her room next door.


	4. Let's get rid of them all!

**Chapter 4 – Well Then, Let's Get Rid Of Them All!**

The next morning they all met on the terrace for a wonderful breakfast outside under the large canopy. All but Harry, who only joined them about an hour after they finished their breakfast, but Dobby was there within moments to get him something to eat. Hermione, Remus and Sirius all gasped when they saw him.

"What's up? Do I have something on my face?" he asked.

"Have you looked into the mirror?" Hermione asked back.

"Just my face, but I thought that looked all right..." Harry said, clearly confused.

"You should go and look into the full length mirror in our bathroom," Remus advised. "How did you get into your clothes this morning?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders, but he looked worried.

"I didn't notice anything. These are the new clothes, they fit very well..."

"Oh, Remus, we charmed them to adjust to his size, don't you remember?" Hermione threw in.

"Ah, I did forget about that. Harry wouldn't have noticed that then."

"What's going on?" Harry asked. "I'm right here, you know!"

"You've grown a bit, Harry," Hermione said. "Probably from the blocks that Bill lifted last night."

"Ah. That's why I felt so funny this morning."

"Headache?" Sirius asked.

"No, not really. More like a dizzy spell."

"And that passed?"

"Oh, yes! I'm fine now. – Really!"

"Have you cast any spells since you got up?" Remus asked, curious.

"Nope."

"We'll have to see how that goes after your breakfast."

So once Harry had finished his breakfast Remus made him try a few simple spells, but foremost he gave him a feather to use for the levitation charm.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Harry said.

Upon which the feather sped up and was taken out of their sight by the wind. Remus chuckled, Hermione and Sirius stared after the vanishing feather and Hermione said:

"Blimey!"

"You're taking the word out of my mouth, Hermione," Sirius replied.

"Here, Harry, try another one, but this time, only think the spell, don't actually pronounce it," Remus suggested, handing Harry another feather.

"Okay."

Again he pointed his wand. This time the feather actually soared the way he was used to.

"I'd say he won't have to learn to cast silently in his sixth year. You'll have an easy time in Defence and Charms then, Harry, because most of your sixth year will be consecrated to silent spell casting in these two subjects and Transfiguration," said Remus.

"Really? Do you think I can have a go, too?" Hermione asked.

"Sure. You might not have Harry's raw power though, Hermione."

"I know I don't have it. But I'm usually at least a year or so ahead of the others in my year, because I'm always studying ahead," Hermione replied cheekily.

"Too true!" confirmed Harry.

It took her a few tries, but she saw her feather float in front of her within only a quarter of an hour. Harry kissed her.

"Well done!"

"Good job, Hermione. Let's go to Diagon Alley then. We need some paint and fabric and some polish for the furniture in the guest room," Remus said, beaming.

"You get that while I go down to the Black vault. What do you prefer, Harry, going with them to the hardware shop or coming with me to the hardcore vault?" Sirius asked.

They laughed and Harry said:

"In all fairness I'd rather go with the surface team, but I'll join you so you won't have to go down there alone, Sirius."

"Very nice of you, I have to say, because I know what you give up. I suggest that we recuperate in Florean Fortescue's Ice Parlour afterwards. My treat of course!"

"That's what I call a nice payment."

"Excellent! We'll probably finish before you, so we'll come back and start on the room. Would you bring us something back?" asked Remus.

"'Course!" promised Sirius.

The four took the Floo to the Leaky Cauldron and emerged there one by one. As they passed they greeted the barkeeper Tom. Once through the passage they split up, both couples exchanging a few tender kisses.

"Do you have enough galleons, Remus?" Sirius asked.

"I do, love, don't worry."

"Good. Does that mean that when we come home the room will be nice and bright and shiny?."

"Might do. I thought of the one on the opposite end that also goes out to the terrace."

"Thought you would. Good choice, too! The polish will get the furniture look nice again. Would be a shame to throw out such lovely Art Deco stuff."

"My parents *love* Art Deco, Sirius, they'd be very sorry if you threw that furniture away! They'd probably make you feel sorry," Hermione said.

"Can't risk that. They will love this house then! It oozes Art Nouveau to Art Deco, doesn't it?"

"Absolutely. I already look forward to see their eyes and faces when they see it! See you two later then!"

Sirius and Harry marched off to Gringotts. Hermione looked at Remus and asked:

"And where are we headed? I'm curious to see a magical version of a hardware shop."

"Choosing paint and fabric colours. Over here, we need to go to this side alley, Silvertown Close."

That side alley quickly opened to a larger shopping area with a wider street, where the shops were a bit larger in size than the quaint shops in the main alley.

"I don't think I've ventured in here before," said Hermione.

"You probably would have had you grown up with magical parents. This is the area where most of the everyday shopping is done - everything from groceries to more modern clothing is sold along here, more like a regular Muggle shopping area. It's certainly not as picturesque as the main Alley, but still not completely modern. Here we are; this is the hardware store. You find everything in here, from door frames to hinges, from screws to window sills, decoration material, furniture from the smallest to the largest, whatever you could need to build a house."

"Doesn't sound very magical, though..."

"Oh, lots of things here are highly magical even. The Ministry would never allow selling magical plumbing items to non-magicals, for example, because they work with magic. You need to cast your spell to send dishes to wash, but the water is conjured and vanished, doesn't come out of a tube and doesn't run out to a tube. That's just an example."

"Wow, I never knew! Because of the way the Basilisk moved around in tubes I know that there are drain pipes in Hogwarts, so I thought..."

"That's a strange thing, really, because the water works the same there as with other magical plumbing. Never seen that there are no drains in the showers? The floors are charmed to vanish the water straight away. Loo works the same way."

"Can't believe it that I never noticed that before!"

Hermione looked around while they went to the paint department. They passed an area where doors and fitting window frames were sold. A seemingly quite frustrated wizard discussed some issues he had with a window he bought with a shop assistant. Then they passed a hall full of lamps, mostly gas lamps. Remus led her up a staircase to the third floor where they finally arrived at the corner where paints were sold.

"What furniture is in the room, Remus?"

"The classic Art Deco forms in dark wood."

"Then we should choose a colour scheme that's not too dark... how about this golden yellow hue?"

"Yes, that looks nice. We'll have to see how light or dark it turns out like this, or we'll have to brighten or darken it. Good choice..."

Once they received the right shade for the walls and the dark stain for the floor they went on with the sample to buy the fabrics for the soft furnishings. There would be new curtains, pillowcases, bed sheets and covers for the new duvets and mattress Remus planned to buy. He also wanted to reupholster the sofa and chairs in the room. The floorboards were to be sanded and stained dark in the same shade as the furniture. Hermione thought that this would take a few days, but then she remembered that they had their magic to achieve everything in a probably very short order! Their last item to buy was the polish for the furniture.

While Hermione and Remus had fun in the shops there was less laughter between Harry and Sirius. They weren't in the money vault of the Blacks, but in the library vault. It was like a huge cavern, but kept dry with special spells so the books would never fade or rot. Sirius used all the spells he had learned in the meantime to take off the 'Black blood only' restriction. Harry helped him with the search spells and these brought a further bookcase full of books where the keyword 'Horcrux' was at least mentioned. Sirius sighed, minimised the books and put them into a bag.

He nodded to the entrance and the two left the vault as quietly as they had entered. Sirius had the idea that he might have a look into the vault he'd freshly set up to which all the dark objects from Grimmauld Place were taken. Bill was responsible for this job and Sirius thought it was a good idea to check the progress. Once inside he made a quick search with 'accio Horcrux'. Out of the depth of the cavern a gold locket on a chain came soaring and almost hit him in the face. Sirius grabbed it from the air before that happened and looked at it with wide eyes.

"Shit – it was just a hunch, you know! I thought I might as well try, but now I've got to find out, which of my ancestors has left this DET," Sirius sighed.

"With the amount of information we found in your family's library it's actually almost a miracle that there's only one of them!" Harry said.

"True. Let's put this thing in the bag as well – it *has* an extremely horrid feel, you know!"

Just as Sirius and Harry returned to the surface and entered the hall at Gringotts they were called to Bloodaxe's office. Bill was already present at the office and grinned at them.

"I've just finished reporting to Bloodaxe and my supervisor. Since we knew you were in the house we thought we'd call you in right away..."

"Lord Black, Lord Potter, welcome back. We have just learned about the discoveries that were made regarding the Evil One. Our young curse breaker here mentioned Horcruxes. Gringotts and Goblins have a very clear policy on items such as these! We do not tolerate them in our vaults at all. Any one of them we can sense we take out and we have found some in irregular cases over the past thousand or so years. The last one we found was a few years back and it was placed in the vault of a member of your family, Bellatrix Lestrange..."

"That doesn't astonish me in the least. Stupid bint probably got it to safeguard from her hero. I'm quite sure she didn't know what it was though. Because if she did then we had better send her through the Veil of Death immediately, we wouldn't want an incarnation of that monster to return, and I would expect her to have one of her own should she know what they are!" Sirius replied. "Luckily she was always more hands-on than bookish, so I hope she doesn't," he added.

"Our records show that the container was a very distinct golden goblet - with a badger. If memory serves me right there was such a goblet that had been stolen from the Smith family a few decades ago. There seems to be a connection with one of the Hogwarts Founders."

"Helga Hufflepuff - her symbolic animal is the badger," Harry said at the same time as Bill and Sirius.

"Then there is a good chance that we have caught one of Voldemort's. Can you give me a picture of this goblet? When we meet Dumbledore we might have to think of the items that could have been used. Dumbledore mentioned Riddle's infatuation with all things Hogwarts," Sirius added.

"Yes, this would be the item here..." Bloodaxe gave Sirius a picture of the goblet.

"Do you therefore know how to destroy those Horcruxes?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes. We do not tolerate any in our vaults and it will be the only thing we willingly destroy. It's even in the contract when a vault is opened and as long as that vault is running this contract remains in force. Repeated violation of that paragraph would lead to the confiscation of the entire contents of the respective vault."

Sirius took out the locket he found in his own vault.

"Then I would have violated this paragraph as well just recently, as I wasn't aware of it. Nor did I know that among the Dark artefacts we have removed from my ancestral home there actually was a Horcrux! This has been deposited just a few days ago, but we didn't know it was one until a few minutes ago when I thought to summon any Horcruxes that might have been in the vault."

"Since you're announcing it yourself we can let that one go, I suppose," the Goblin said and grinned.

"Thank you - we were actually going to take it with us to destroy it later on. I don't know if this is another of Voldemort's or one of my blasted ancestors..."

"We will have it destroyed right here and right now. Let's look at it first."

The locket was quite lovely, mounted to a long gold chain. It couldn't be opened. A letter 'S' was embossed on one side. There was clearly a horrible feeling that took hold of everyone of them who held the locket.

"This 'S' could be Slytherin's..." Bill speculated.

"Well possible. In any case it's in your possession, once it's destroyed it can be repaired and then it will be very valuable. There aren't very many memorabilia left from the Founders, are there?" said Bloodaxe.

"I only know about the Sorting Hat and the sword, both from Gryffindor, but both are at Hogwarts," Harry said.

"And both are whole, I would guess, especially the Hat. I can't imagine that it would have still been usable if someone had used it for a Horcrux. Not so sure about the sword, I never heard about that," said Bill.

"I had it in my hands - when I was down in the Chamber of Secrets Fawkes brought me the Hat and groping around inside I cut myself on its blade first. The name Gryffindor was carved in the blade close to the hilt. It's encrusted with lots of gemstones, mainly rubies," said Harry.

"Another story you owe us, Harry," said Sirius.

"Oh, you can hear it right now, it's rather enlightening... in retrospect anyway."

Harry quickly recounted his 'rencontre' with a Basilisk and the near-incarnation of the teenage Voldemort.

Bloodaxe called a guard inside and told him:

"This needs to be cut in two, guard Switchblade. Go ahead."

The guard made short order of his order and two seconds later the same scream was heard that Harry had already witnessed twice before. He nodded and said:

"Sounded exactly the same as the ones in the Chamber of Secrets and the graveyard."

"Are you sure, Lord Potter, because the scream is very distinctive, and it differs from one creator to another."

"It does? In that case this one was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. We could watch the memory I have from the graveyard and the Chamber of Secrets to make sure."

"Excellent thinking. Bill, would you kindly fetch the Pensieve? And call in Grudgekeeper, according to our list he was the Goblin who destroyed the Lestrange Horcrux. We could simply compare his memory to this one and would immediately know if the creator of the Goblet Horcrux is the same as this one!"

That took a while, but finally the old Goblin was found and brought to the office, where he kindly provided the needed memory. Hearing the resulting scream they knew that another of Voldemorts Horcruxes was gone.

"That's four down, two or three more to go," Harry said, relieved. "But now we have another one, which might be a bit more difficult..."

"What do you mean?"

"It seems that I carry one of them in my scar..." Harry pointed to his scar.

"Ah! That is the reason for the dark grey ring in your aura," Bloodaxe replied. He sent out the guard once more:

"Get the ritual master up here at once! We need to free Lord Potter from this abomination."

After another short waiting time there was a knock on the door and the ritual master entered the office. Bloodaxe explained to the elderly Goblin what they needed done and the ritual master looked at Harry's scar closely. He grumbled and mumbled something, then he turned to Bloodaxe and ask gruffly:

"Do you have a container ready?"

Bloodaxe offered a small metal chest, which he emptied. The ritual master accepted it, touched Harry's scar and recited something short in Gobbledegook. A quick swishing move with his finger and Harry felt something being pulled out of his head. He looked up rather astonished, but the something already vanished in the little metal chest. Bloodaxe hardly allowed it to settle in there before ordering his guard to destroy the metal chest, too. Yet another scream was heard ringing through the office.

Harry, who had expected to be at least unconscious after the removal of this Horcrux, was completely astounded, but elated.

"I feel great! It's like someone pulled the wad from my brain, even more than it was when Bill took off the blocks! This is fantastic!"

Harry actually jumped up and hugged Sirius, then Bill and even Bloodaxe. The ritual master kept him at bay though, but even he had a grin on his face watching the deliriously happy teen. Oh what far away memories when he could still be so happy himself. Sirius smiled and pulled his godson into another hug.

"I can't believe this went so easy! I was certain I had to die to get rid of this leech. Thank you, thank you so much, ritual master! I'll keep your memory in my family and my children's children will still know your name and know that they should be thankful to you! I'm sure Prongs will be completely solid when I cast my next Patronus!"

And Harry did, just to celebrate the occasion. A massive silver stag shot out of his wand upon a simple whispered 'Expecto Patronus'. This festive Prongs seemed to sense the happiness in his caster and nuzzled Harry's hand tenderly. Sirius stared at the manifestation of Harry's relief and giddiness in awe. He ruffled Harry's hair and said:

"If anyone deserves this happiness it's you, Harry. Just wait what's going to be in store for you when Hermione hears of this! She'll come at you like a rocket!"

"I don't think I'll mind, Padfoot."

"You certainly shouldn't - but remember the spells! I don't want to become a grandfather already."

Harry promptly blushed.

"No hurry for that, Sirius!"

"You never know. That witch has claimed you for good, you know."

"I know, but I don't know if I'm ready for that step..."

"When you will be you'll know, don't worry, just trust Hermione's lead. But now I think our business is done here, gentlemen. Thank you all three very much, we are very grateful. I trust you will assign yourselves the proper compensation from our vaults."

"You are welcome, gentlemen. Here, this would be yours now."

Bloodaxe had repaired the locket and passed it to Sirius. He took it and admired the goldsmith's work. Without the dark taint it looked beautiful in its severity and elegance. Sirius pocketed it and held his hand out to Harry.

"Come on, pup, time to go! I'm sure Remus and Hermione are already hard at work."

As if he were a small boy, Harry took the proffered hand and waved goodbye to the Goblins and Bill. They left the building and were on the way to one of the apparition points when they passed a jewellery store. Harry pulled Sirius inside.

"I want to surprise Hermione with something, Sirius..."

Sirius smiled. Bold move from his pup, but Padfoot thought it a good idea. They selected a lovely set of earrings with a single pearl on each and a fitting ring. It didn't cost a fortune, but the pearls, set in gold, looked nice and were precious. Harry admired their shimmering beauty as they left the shop. They just made another little stop at Florean Fortescue's where they bought huge portions of ice cream for everyone before Sirius apparated them back to Jersey. Harry ran off and into the house, shouting:

"Remus! Hermione!"

Remus and Hermione had already started to clear out the guest room and heard Harry's screams. Both dropped what they held in their hands, pulled their wands and ran downstairs, only to find a giddy teen who couldn't wait to bring them his news.

"There you are! You won't believe what just happened a moment ago! We've seen Bloodaxe again and you know what? He had the Gringotts ritual master called in and got rid of the Horcrux in my head! How about that?"

Hermione jumped Harry, kissed him and pulled him into a victory dance neither of the Marauders had ever seen. And when Harry told them that a further two Horcruxes were down she started to cry.

"Don't cry, love! I'm so happy today. I was so happy I conjured up my Patronus at Gringotts and boy, was that ever a solid one! I don't think I've ever been this happy. I love you, Hermione."

She lifted up her teary eyes to his face and took a good look at him. The scar had faded to a very fine line, which she kissed tenderly. Then she planted more kisses on his face until she reached his mouth and then she said:

"I love you, too, Harry. And I'll always love you."

Remus and Sirius quietly left them for a little snogging session of their own. Out on the terrace, Sirius dropped down on the swing and pulled Remus close.

"That was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen, Remus. And at Gringotts - that was just simply amazing. I'm going to take up my seat at the Wizengamot now and I'll do everything to work for better relations with the Goblins, because what I have seen from them today lifted my reverence for them a few degrees higher. They were amazing! Apparently all it takes to destroy a Horcrux is to cut it up with a Goblin made sword. Look at this!"

Sirius pulled the locket from the pocket of his robe and showed it to Remus.

"What's that?"

"Looks like we have had a Horcrux at Grimmauld Place - this came out of the vault we used to store all the dark stuff we took from there. I actually just summoned a "Horcrux" and this came flying. It was destroyed and I've heard that scream Harry mentioned when he heard it in that graveyard. Together with Bloodaxe and Bill we then found out that the Goblins have destroyed another one of Tom's a few years ago. Every few years they search for such objects because they don't tolerate them in their vaults. Looks like Voldie gave one of them to Bella for safekeeping. But with Harry free from that thing we're on the home stretch, I can feel it!"

Remus felt relief beyond measure. Ever since they had become aware of the fact that Harry carried this horrible thing in his head he had feared for his cub's life. He kissed Sirius tenderly.

"I wonder if Dumbledore will accept the fact."

"Yes, that's another hurdle we have to take. It won't be easy, Remus, unless he is willing to test Harry and find out for himself. But I fear that this will hurt Harry much more than today's treatment. You should have seen that, the ritual master simply spoke a few words in Gobbledegook and that was it. Horcrux out of Harry and in to a container, container destroyed, Horcrux gone, container fixed. Then Bloodaxe also repaired this locket here."

"This looks old, Sirius."

"Could have been Slytherin's even, Remus. If that's the case it's a very valuable item. There aren't very many things left from the Founders."

"So it would seem."

"I'll probably give it to Hogwarts. It's not like I need anything that valuable – there are enough Galleons in my accounts."

Harry and Hermione ran up the stairs and into Harry's room. They sat down on his bed and he pulled out his little gift for her.

"I brought you something - I wanted to give you something. A little thank you for all you're doing for me. And of course, because I love you and want to lay the world at your feet, Hermione!"

"Oh Harry! You don't need to do that, you should know that! I'm so glad that you're my friend and that you love me. I couldn't possibly love you more, you know. But thank you... wow! How beautiful, love!"

"I thought you might like them. I didn't want to bowl you over with something overly pretentious, but I saw these and thought you'd look lovely wearing them... I'm really glad you like them. Sirius helped choosing them."

"These are beautiful pearls, I really do love them. Thank you, Harry!"

Hermione put the ring on and immediately took her earrings out to replace them with the pearls. She beamed at him.

"Though it should be me giving you something to show you my happiness that this horrible thing in your head is gone, love. My conservative auntie will be pleased to see these; she thinks pearls are perfect for young girls."

"You have an aunt?"

"Three, actually, two on my mother's side and one on dad's. Plus two who are married to my dad's and my mum's brothers each. Even though I am an only child my family is quite extended. The auntie I mentioned before is mum's oldest sibling while mum is the youngest; she's considerably older than my mum. And she has three kids one girl, two boys. They're a good bit older than I."

"And you're the only magical one?"

Hermione nodded, but said:

"My paternal grandmother is a squib. She never said anything about it until I came back from Hogwarts after my first year. None of her children ever knew, but she had always suspected I would be magical. I have several cousins who are younger than me in my dad's family, and some of them could be magical as well. On his side I'm the oldest child. On my mum's side I'm the third youngest and there are a number of cousins as well."

"Are they as likeable as you?"

"They're mostly okay. I'm not close with any of them, but friendly enough to say they're fine. The next one in line who could be magical is coming up this year. His name's Simon and he's turned eleven two months ago. You'll get to learn to know them one by one, I promise. I'm sure they'll become your family, too."

It was the first time Hermione actually spoke about her extended family. And it was the first time Harry actually asked her about them. Hermione obliged, but after a while they talked less and kissed more. They both started to feel very comfortable in each other's arms and were able to verbalise their feelings. It felt natural and fitting to both of them. Only when Harry's stomach gave signs of its emptiness they reluctantly parted and decided to go and see if there was some lunch available. They actually found it on the terrace, where Remus was just about to get up and come looking for them.

"Great, you're here! Let's eat. And then let's get busy in that room if you don't mind."

"Not at all, we'll gladly help you, Remus."

They enjoyed their food and afterwards the four of them continued what Remus and Hermione had already started. Dobby got the order to polish the furniture, make the new curtains and bedcovers and reupholster all the seating furniture with the new fabrics. He jumped on the creative job with his usual enthusiasm. The room was completely emptied, the old curtains taken down and then they sanded down the floorboards, stained them with a dark stain, sanded and stained the skirting boards and finally painted the walls. Remus continued with the window frames, which were also sanded and stained with the same colour as the floor and skirting boards. Within three hours the room looked completely different. Magic had sped up the process considerably and the result of their work was very nice. The soft buttery yellow was warm and pleasing to the eye. They brought in the furniture, which Dobby had brought back to perfection by cleaning and polishing it, and dressed the bed in the fitting bed fabrics and hung up new curtains with the same fabric as the bed.

Hermione asked Remus for the needed spells to renovate furniture and sew curtains or other things. Remus told her that there were quite a few books for the magical DIYer.

While Remus and the teens had done the walls and floors, Sirius was busy helping Dobby to freshen up and polish the furniture, from the mirror frame to the armoire. By dinner time they returned all of it back into the room. A big double bed, nightstands on both sides, an armoire on the wall to the corridor, the seating area to the bay window and door to the terrace and a dressing table and mirror on the wall opposite the bed. A small coffee table, a small sideboard and a heavy floor lamp as well as the small lamps for the bedside tables followed. Remus also redressed all the lampshades in the new fabrics.

Finally they added the new rugs Remus and Hermione had brought back from Diagon Alley and hung up some vintage paintings. An elderly gentlemen from one of the portraits in the corridor came in and inspected the room.

"Well done, dears, it looks splendid again."

"Thank you, uncle Alphard," said Sirius and smiled.

"Yes, this really looks like it should again, a very elegant guest room. Who chose the colour scheme? It fits perfectly with the stained glass window panes."

"Hermione and I. Well, Hermione really, because she saw it and said it was the best. I couldn't but agree with her," said Remus.

"Excellent taste, young lady! We haven't been introduced yet?"

"I'm sorry, uncle Alphard. This young gent is my godson, Harry Potter. And this young lady here is Hermione Granger, his classmate and best friend, and since very recently his love," Sirius said, grinning.

"I'm very pleased to meet you both. You can call me uncle Alphard, just like the others. Sirius and Andromeda are the black sheep of the Blacks in their generation, I was one of the ones in mine, next to your grandmother Dorea, Harry, my cousin. She did marry your grandfather, which was perfectly befitting our station, but of course the family was still not too welcome. No one could say anything against Charlus Potter, of course, the Potters are after all a family that dates back even further than the Blacks, but they do intermarry regularly with Muggle-borns and halfbloods, and even occasionally with Muggles, which is definitely not regarded well in the Black family. Just as if it mattered in any way, shape or form really. I've heard that your mum was also a Muggle-born witch, is that right, Harry?"

"Yep. And quite frankly, I'm very proud of her. It was her, after all, who actually banished Voldemort, not I. I just profited from the protection her sacrifice gave me."

"That's what I call a full blooded mother," said Alphard enthusiastically.

"Hermione is a Muggle-born, too. She's the best in our year, and I'd bet not only in Hogwarts!" Harry told him proudly.

Hermione blushed and thought: 'So this is the infamous uncle Alphard. Wow, he was quite the looker.'

"I'm delighted to meet you, Hermione, we need many more young women of your calibre. Not only gifted with excellent taste, talent for the handy work, but also highly intelligent, what a wonderful combination! Harry, see to it that she doesn't get too far away from you and then do what your grandparents wanted: make lots of little Potters!"

"I'll see to it, uncle Alphard."

"Thank you, Sir. Sometimes I can't but think that Harry's getting the lesser bargain with me than I get with him," said Hermione.

"Oh, I couldn't disagree more! The Potters became such an old family BECAUSE they intermarried and kept their blood fresh. They're old nobility and dead rich, but they've always had an excellent nose for the fitting match to bring on their family. And it's generally been love matches, too. Charlus fell in love with Dorea early on and they always wished for a large family. Unfortunately they only had one son late in their lives, and we've always known that it was the Black degeneration that caused it, not the Potter genes. They were very sad that they didn't have more children who lived, but James was a wonderfully healthy and intelligent boy."

"We're not that far yet, uncle Alphard! First we want to finish school, then get settled in a profession and then we'll talk family!" said Hermione.

"Down to earth she is, too! Harry, you can't let this young lady get away from you, do you understand? This relationship needs to be well nurtured and cared for!"

The living participants of this conversation all laughed out loud. They understood that the old man was serious about what he said, but they were also of the opinion that they would just wait and see what became of the relationship. Secretly though, both Harry and Hermione thought they would love to get to this point.

Dobby called them to dinner. They sat at the table together all through the meal. Hermione asked Dobby how he had spent his day. He told her that he'd visited Winky in Hogwarts in the morning.

"How is she doing, Dobby?" Hermione asked.

"Not well, Mistress Hermione. Winky is still into the butterbeer, even though the other elves do their best to keep her from it."

"Is she still pining for her dreadful master?"

"No, she knows he's gone, but she is longing for another family to care for. And she is starting to lose her magic..." Dobby said, looking sad.

"Losing her magic?"

"Unbound and unhappy elves lose their magic, not entirely, but much of their power is lost if they don't get what they need. She is needing to bond with some wizards or witches again or she'll be almost out of her power soon. She could even die."

"But you're not bonded..." Hermione remarked.

Dobby's ears turned as red as the Weasleys' when they felt ashamed and Hermione sensed something.

"You have bonded yourself to Harry, haven't you, Dobby? Secretly, so that he wouldn't notice, didn't you?" Hermione asked with a cheeky grin.

The little elf looked at his three masters a little fearfully, but nodded.

"Okay. I get it. House-elves need the bondage to survive?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"What can we do for Winky then? Isn't she bonded to Hogwarts?"

"No, she isn't, she is still a free elf. It was always just meant as a bridge until she might find a new family."

"And she's very unhappy?"

Dobby nodded.

"She needs the close contact with a family or someone whom she can care for."

"Would she be willing to come and work for us, Dobby?" Sirius asked.

"Maybe. If she can be a proper house-elf again... it's very important to her. She doesn't like being a free elf. To Winky it's like being disgraced."

"Well, there's nothing but calling her then. – Winky!" Sirius said.

With a sharp pop Winky appeared in the room. She looked around quite astonished and asked:

"Why Sir is calling Winky?" she asked with a shaking voice.

"Winky, we heard that you are very unhappy, because you're working for Hogwarts, but are still a free elf, is that right?"

"Winky is being a disgraced elf – she is not happy, but she is not having the right to complain..." the tiny elf replied with a quivering, but stern voice.

Winky, obviously under the influence of butterbeer, swayed a little. Nobody commented because they were all aware of her problem.

"Would you like to find a new family to bond with, Winky?" Sirius asked on.

"Would Sir know a family that would bond with a disgraced elf?"

"Yes, you could come to us and bond with us. You'd be working here at Seaside Manor and looking after us. And you're by no means disgraced as your former master was wrong to send you away."

Winky looked up, surprised, then her eyes swivelled to Dobby. Even though both elves seemed to be well aware that there wouldn't be work enough for two elves Dobby nodded to her.

"But isn't Dobby already your elf, Sir?"

"He's Harry's elf, Winky. We are aware that there isn't all that much to do here, but we have other houses that will need looking after, so you won't have nothing to do. You will just be living here with us."

"Then Winky is willing to bond with Sirs."

"Very good. There are only a few ground rules: you are never to punish yourself! If you think you did something wrong that you can't fix yourself, then your punishment will be to come to either Remus or myself and confess what you did. You will eat all your meals with us and share our table as Dobby already does. I know that these are two things that are unheard of in some circles, but we don't want a slave, we want a faithful helper and friend in our home. If you bond with us you are henceforth a member of our family. Furthermore it's important that you guard our homes and our secrets, but I needn't tell you that, you know that already very well."

Winky listened with wide eyes and again looked to Dobby for counsel, and Dobby almost shook when he nodded. Harry and Hermione watched amusedly as Winky accepted the terms of the contract. Sirius then got up, approached Winky and pulled his wand. He held his hand on her head and spoke, what he knew to be the ages old words that would bind Winky to his family:

"I, Sirius Black, take and bind this elf Winky into the family and the noble and most ancient house and hearth of Black, so mote it be."

There was a flash of white that enclosed the two and the binding ritual ended. Dobby ran to lay another plate for Winky and Sirius invited her to join them. Winky at first wanted to protest, but remembered that she had agreed to a contract and reluctantly sat next to Dobby. Remus adjusted her chair to a height that allowed the tiny being to reach the table comfortably and the meal went on among the now enlarged family. Sirius reminded Winky who they all were:

"You are now bonded to me, but these members of my family are here very often or always, this is my life-mate Remus Lupin, you know Harry Potter and I think you also already know Hermione Granger?"

"Yes, Master Sirius."

"Fine. You will listen to all of us. Dobby can tell you what there is to do and in time we'll show you the other places that the two of you will maintain. By the way, Miss Hermione has understood what the real house-elf cause is for the moment, better treatment and not simple freedom, so don't be afraid of her."

"Yes, Master Sirius."

Sirius sent a Patronus message to Minerva to inform her that she was down a free elf at Hogwarts.

After dinner Hermione wished them a nice evening and returned to her home via Floo. Sirius, Remus and Harry spent the evening playing games and talking about their plans for the next day.

When Harry went to bed he fell asleep and slept soundly, free from any kind of nightmares for the first time since he could remember. He got up in the morning well rested and with a fuzzy feeling of happiness at the burden that had been taken from his shoulders. He knew he wasn't the one to end Voldemort's life anymore, now it could be done by anyone. Though truth be told he also wasn't afraid of that being that was Tom Riddle these days anymore!

Hermione turned up for breakfast and was pleased to hear that her boyfriend had spent such a restful night. She beamed when he told her again how much better he felt now. Then she asked:

"What's the plan for today?"

"We'll go to Hogwarts and talk to Dumbledore to see where he has got to with his research and confront him with our own research and actions so far. And of course to let him know that the Horcrux in Harry is gone," sagte Sirius.

Remus sent a few owls out, one to Bill, one to Filius Flitwick and one to Minerva to inform them that they would arrive after lunch for a small meeting. The letter to Minerva also asked her to call in Dumbledore for the meeting – at short notice and without telling him the subject though.

At one thirty they assembled in front of the Floo. Minerva had allowed them to come through the Floo to her office and that's where they went, one by one. Harry went first. As usual he landed in a heap outside of the hearth, right in front of a grinning Minerva. She helped him up immediately and dusted him off.

"I'll never get it with Floo travel - never!" he complained and then greeted his head of house:

"Hello, Professor McGonagall. And thank you."

"You're welcome, Harry. Hello to you, too."

Harry was a bit satisfied when Hermione came next and didn't manage to stay completely upright either, but at least she didn't fall into an undignified heap. Remus stepped out of the Floo in an elegant flowing move and Sirius came out just the same.

"Good to see you again, dears! Since you requested a meeting I have set up the conference room, we can go there right now, follow me, please!" Minerva said.

They followed her out of her office and up a floor, past a wall sized painting of the castle at the end of a corridor, which led into another shorter corridor. A gaze through the mostly open doors showed Harry a number of larger offices and finally they stepped into what was obviously one of the many towers of Hogwarts, where a nice, large conference room with the longest oval table Harry had ever seen in his life filled the space of the whole oval shaped tower. It sat up to forty people. Along a small ditch in the middle were holders for parchment rolls, ink stands, quills and other stationery. The oak table looked very old and it was easy to see that it was a place to work, especially to work together. Also on the table was a Pensieve, of which Harry immediately thought it was well placed in this working surrounding, as brainstorming would be taken to a different level with the help of this kind of magic. On a sideboard there were several pitchers with juice and water for refreshments as well as a number of crystal glasses. Along the table there were several bowls containing fresh fruit. Minerva guided them to one end of the table and waved her wand to resize the whole arrangement to the number of people who would take part in the meeting.

"I leave you here for a moment, I'm still expecting Bill to arrive, and he has announced at least one other guest."

Harry, Sirius, Remus and Hermione exchanged glances and wondered who that could be, but they nodded and sat down on some of the chairs at the table. Filius Flitwick joined them soon, his usual cheerful self. He transfigured his chair higher to sit more comfortably on the same height as the others.

Then Dumbledore entered, shortly before Minerva arrived back with Bill and, to everyone's surprise, two Goblins, one of which was Ragnok, the bank's director in person, the other was Bloodaxe. Dumbledore felt like something was up, but he didn't know what he had to expect and that he wasn't in the know made him more than just a little uneasy. He felt like a guest in this meeting while he was used to be the one person who had all the knowledge and who led all meetings of which he took part.

Bill introduced the parties and Minerva enlarged the table to hold two more persons and gave them heightened seats as well. Once everyone sat, Ragnok explained his presence:

"Even though it has been Mr. Lupin who wished to have this conversation I would like to welcome you all to this meeting. Professor Dumbledore, you may be wondering why we come here with this, and why I think it is important enough. You will quickly find out, I promise. A few days ago Lord Harry Potter visited Gringotts to have his person checked for blocks on his magic. The Goblin they spoke to, suggested to call in Mr. William Weasley, one of our most promising young curse breakers, who happened to be available, being on an extended holiday back in Great Britain, where he will soon start a new position. He volunteered to check the young Lord and found a disturbing number of blocks on the boy's magical core. During the testing an exceedingly dark reading came up from behind his lightning bolt scar."

Ragnok, and in fact everyone else at the table, threw glances at Dumbledore. Minerva frowned. She looked around and noticed that no one except herself seemed to be surprised at what Ragnok said, but she could easily deduce that Dumbledore was at the root of the problems with these blocks found on Harry. Dumbledore had the decency to blush, even if he said nothing.

"As I understand all parties assembled here are already informed about these facts except Madam McGonagall and Mr. Dumbledore."

"That is correct, Director Ragnok. We have called for this meeting to bring all parties assembled here up to date of the current events and actions taken," Remus confirmed.

He turned to Minerva.

"We didn't have time to inform you yet, Minerva. But this meeting is our opportunity to exchange all knowledge about the subject Albus is researching. Independently from him we have learned that what he looks for and studies are Horcruxes. It is a very sensitive subject, and Albus understandably wants to keep it a secret, because it is darkest of magic. We became aware of it in a discussion, in which Filius asked Harry a few questions regarding Tom Riddle/Voldemort. Harry mentioned the cursed diary that possessed little Ginny Weasley in her first year, which he destroyed in the Chamber of Secrets. He said that when he stabbed it with the Basilisk fang it screamed and the immaterial young Tom Riddle vanished. And that led to his remark that killing the snake in the graveyard after the third task resulted the same scream.

"This was when Filius guessed what these two events have in common: a Horcrux. More precisely a Horcrux made by Voldemort. And we realised that another such Horcrux must be what keeps Harry's scar raw and 'alive' - there is a Horcrux behind it. Or, as we can now say, was - as it has already been removed from Harry to a metal container and subsequently destroyed by the Goblins. In the past few days we have found, at Gringotts, two more of Voldemort's Horcruxes, one had been detected by the Goblins on one of their routine checks a number of years ago in the vault of the Lestrange family. It was made using a golden goblet, which was decorated with a badger and attributed to be an heirloom handed down from Helga Hufflepuff..."

"A golden goblet attributed to Helga Hufflepuff? That must have been the one that was stolen from one Hepzibah Smith in 1946," Dumbledore said quickly.

Ragnok turned to him, very interested.

"When we detected it we remembered that it had been reported as stolen. Can you give us more details, Professor?"

"Certainly."

Since the cat was already out of the bag, Dumbledore didn't hold back information. He pulled the strand with his memory from his head. The round was astonished when they watched Dumbledore visiting with a frightened little house-elf in Azkaban, who told him all about the murder of her mistress and the theft of this item.

"She was incarcerated there, but she hadn't murdered. She had seen Tom Riddle do it, but was under Imperius order to incriminate herself," Dumbledore said sadly.

"Do you have other relevant information, Professor?" Ragnok asked politely.

"Oh yes. Since you already know about the Horcruxes I gladly let you all take part in the relevant memories. You must know that I tried to keep up with the student that was Tom Riddle. I had met him first when I brought his Hogwarts acceptance letter to him. He had already deduced that he had some kind of a power as he told me then. Even then he was all about power. Magic wasn't a gift to him, it was a power. And he had made use of it by tormenting the other children in the orphanage where he grew up."

"From Lord Potter we have already learned that he was of mixed-blood descent, an heir of Slytherin through his mother, but with a Muggle father. It seems that you know a lot more than that."

"I do indeed. His mother died right after giving birth. She had given him the name: Tom Marvolo Riddle. That's the extent of her contribution. Tom was given to the nearest Muggle orphanage, but like so many Muggle-borns he didn't belong and he could feel it. By the age of six he was feared by the other children and as early as age nine years he already began to love the power he had and developed a lust for tormenting and torturing others. It looks like he has an inborn need to domineer. He also had a tendency to steal from the other children. Not really valuables, rather he took things they loved and destroyed them. He kept a few things and I later learned that he had killed some pets the other children kept. Of course when I met him first I laid out the law and told him that such behaviour would not be tolerated at Hogwarts. If he wanted to come to the school he had to toe the line. Which he did for the most part. He couldn't quite leave everything outside of the castle, but mostly he behaved well. Almost all the teachers fell for the natural charm he developed in the years after he started Hogwarts. Of course, he was Sorted to Slytherin. He ruled that house by the time he reached fourth year. He was an excellent student and was subsequently made prefect and even headboy. But in all his years at Hogwarts he never really made any friends. Despite his charm he kept everyone at bay."

Once started, Dumbledore left out nothing that he knew about Tom Marvolo Riddle. It was a lot and it took Albus almost two hours to relate the whole story and answering questions. Once he was done, Hermione took over:

"Thank you very much, Professor, that gives us a deeper understanding about his working and motivations. On to the subject of the DETs..."

"DETs?" Dumbledore asked, interrupting her.

Everyone apart from Minerva and the Goblins began to grin.

"Our house-internal acronym for Dastardly Evil Things – we thought it wise to use some replacement in case we're overheard."

"Ah – very astute, Miss Granger. Please continue," Dumbledore commended.

"As for the Horcruxes – we have at this point, four Horcruxes destroyed, Hufflepuff's cup, Riddle's diary, Slytherin's locket and the newest one, Riddle's snake. Another, accidental Horcrux in Harry has been successfully retrieved and subsequently destroyed. Here are the three artefacts that have been repaired once the Horcrux inside has been killed."

Harry produced the three named items. Dobby had gone and found the diary again; the Goblins had brought the cup from the Lestrange vault. And they held the locket found at Grimmauld Place.

"Can you tell me where you found the locket?" Dumbledore asked, eyeing the item from the side.

"It was – can you believe it? – at Grimmauld Place," Sirius explained.

"We don't know how it found its way there, but we know for sure that these are all Horcruxes made by Voldemort," Harry added.

"How do you know that?"

Harry emptied the Pensieve and brought out vials with the different memories from the destruction of the three Horcruxes they had on hand, and then he added the memory from killing Nagini.

"The same scream everywhere. The Goblins say that the screaming is individual and to prove this fact they have brought several more memories to corroborate the claim," Bill added.

They watched three short memories of earlier cases when Goblins at Gringotts killed off Horcruxes. Not one sounded alike, but in the case of some old wizard who had already made two of them and stored them both in his vault they could hear that both his Horcruxes let out the same blood-curdling scream when they were stabbed. Filius went on and explained further:

"We know now that there are several ways to destroy a Horcrux: Harry's method of using Basilisk venom and destroying it using a Goblin made sword or axe. Fiendfyre could be a third method. Once the Horcrux has gone the objects can be repaired and show no signs of dark magic on them anymore. I invite you to try to detect anything yourself, Albus."

"I can see you have been very busy," Dumbledore admitted.

"And we have been very successful so far. We have tried to set up a theory on the number of Horcruxes he could have made. Our idea was that he must have gone for the number of seven. Even with two or three Horcruxes the soul becomes extremely unstable from splitting in half each time and the body would be significantly altered as we have found out from one of the books we read. We have deduced that he could, at maximum make seven, six Horcruxes and the seventh part that was left inside of him, and would think that he has achieved them – or almost achieved them. He must have had five when he went to the Potters on Halloween 1981. It seems that he intended to use the murder of baby Harry to create his sixth and final Horcrux. He may have partially succeeded though he didn't know it as he accidentally placed that Horcrux in Harry's head. We're not even sure if that was a full Horcrux or just a whiff of his spirit. I know that there are parts of the creation ritual after the splitting and since Voldemort obviously lost his power from the rebounded curse he couldn't have finished the ritual."

"If that was only a whiff of his spirit I don't want to know what the full fragment would feel like..." Harry mumbled.

"Since he didn't know about that Horcrux in Harry's head one of the first things he had done with his recreated body to produce that sixth Horcrux, which he placed in Nagini. Of course, he also didn't know that Harry had destroyed his very first Horcrux, the diary, in the Chamber of Secrets. Basically what remains in that rudimentary body is just a fraction of his soul, which would not let him live on this plane of existence for very long, even if he had a full body again. He has split his soul one time too many.

"What remains to do now is to find out what his remaining two Horcruxes are, and where they are to be found. The only thing we assumed so far is that he seems to have a certain affinity to objects that could be associated with the Founders of Hogwarts," Hermione explained.

Dumbledore was speechless. Minerva was immensely proud of her favourite student. This fifteen year old could give more than one or two adults a run for their money. Since Dumbledore still gathered his bearings, Minerva asked:

"How do we proceed now?"

"Brainstorming," Hermione replied.

"What's that? I've never heard this term before..." Minerva admitted.

"But the setup in this room proves that you probably practice a very advanced method of brainstorming, Professor. Basically it's that we'll proceed by just throwing in ideas, flashes of ideas and from the ideas from others and our own we develop more ideas and approach the solution to the question."

Hermione stood up and directed the chalk to write a few things on the board:

"Here are some details we already know as facts or have deduced as facts: the items Riddle has used to turn into Horcruxes. Notice, how the first one is a rather random object, a simple journal, bought at a Muggle news retailer. We are certain that this was his very first Horcrux. This split his soul in two, half of it creating the first Horcrux. Then we have two that are identified as objects with a connection to the Hogwarts Founders: Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's cup. We can part from the idea that since the Horcrux in Harry was accidental it can't be related to any of the others as such, so it doesn't help with the research. On the other side of this particular equation we have the question of who he has murdered to create this object. Would you agree that when he murdered Myrtle in his fifth year he probably produced the diary Horcrux? In the Chamber of Secrets he told Harry that he was sixteen at the time."

"I would agree with that. I have one memory that I haven't shown you, because it is garbled. It is that of an old professor here, who retired in 1979. His name was Horace Slughorn and he was the head of Slytherin for about fifty years. And he had a good relationship with Tom. Tom asked him something significant, but Horace deliberately clouded it and his answer in his memory. Dear Horace really was very afraid of his former student. At this point he might possibly be easier to convince to part with the full memory. In any case it's of a question Tom asked him in his sixth year. I suspect he asked whether Professor Slughorn thought it possible that one person might make more than one Horcrux, and maybe even how many one person might safely make before actually dying from making too many. I suppose that Horace didn't want to tell me because he was ashamed that he even discussed this with a student. He might have been aware that Tom was capable of doing it, too," said Dumbledore.

"That puts Myrtle on top of the list, together with the diary. We know further that he then killed his father and grandparents right after leaving Hogwarts, because we know that they died in 1944. We don't know which item he used, but I think it might have been the locket. Remember that from Professor Dumbledore's memories we heard that his mother sold the locket to Borgin and Burke's just before Riddle was born. He probably stole the locket when he worked there. So I put the Riddles below Myrtle and add the locket with a question mark. The next Horcrux murder was that of Madam Smith, certainly using Hufflepuff's cup, because he had it ready right there where he stole it. We also know that he must have used the murder of Bertha Jorkins to create his last Horcrux, the snake. And from then on we are in the dark. We neither know what items he could have used nor who he murdered to make the Horcruxes.

"This is a point where we would have to gather ideas about the Horcruxes, which is the easier question to solve. Easier than to guess all the murders he's committed to create the DETs. We have one hint that's weighing heavily, and that's the fact that two of the three items he used for Horcruxes are definitely heirlooms from Hogwarts Founders. From the Professor we know that Riddle had a slight obsession with the Founders. We should begin by bringing together a list of other known heirlooms. It's to be expected that he tried to use items from all four founders."

"Gryffindor's sword," Harry said immediately.

"That and the Sorting Hat are the only known heirlooms from Gryffindor still in existence, and they're both safely here at Hogwarts. We can check them, but I doubt that the Sorting Hat could still have been usable, had he managed to make a Horcrux out of it," Dumbledore said, and everyone agreed.

"I'll fetch them later on. Right now three Aurors are working on the site of Voldemort's grandfather's house, because I suspect that there is an item in there. I don't know what it was, but together with the memories of the Gaunts I would think you would have to replace the locket with that unknown item from the Gaunt house, Hermione. The locket must have been used with a later murder," Dumbledore said.

Hermione noted the two items under a third heading of possible Horcrux items and replaced the locket with the unknown item, writing the locket beneath, marking an unknown murder on the other side of the equation. She looked around the three professors. Filius had his forehead in a slight frown, but then he said:

"I don't know about anything remaining from Rowena Ravenclaw except for two things, and both of them are more like a myth: it is rumoured that her wand was left in the possession of the Ollivanders. The wand in their window shop is certainly a copy, but it is the copy of Ravenclaw's wand, I believe the original would be safe. I'll conduct some further research with Oliver Ollivander. The second item is even more shrouded in mystery. She had a diadem, which was rumoured to give wisdom to anyone who wore it. The story goes that one of her daughters, Helena, stole it and took it away. She fled to Albania and was followed by a man who intended to woo her. The whole story is a mystery, because both died in the process. The diadem remained lost. No one has seen it since. But these would be the only possible remaining items he could have got from Rowena. I believe that our resident ghost in Ravenclaw, the Grey Lady, might be Helena, but she never says a word."

"Let's say that the wand in Ollivander's possession is stored in Gringotts then Voldemort would have faced considerable difficulties to steal it. But the diadem is interesting. Very inconvenient that the Grey Lady doesn't speak..."

But the Grey Lady seemed to have heard them, because she floated into the conference room and said in a soft, sweet voice:

"She didn't speak because she was ashamed of herself. Maybe I can redeem myself after these almost a Thousand years though. Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to tell you my own story, if it would help you."

"Please tell us your story, Madam, we will not judge, just listen," Hermione replied, sitting down again.

"It is not much of a story. I foolishly wanted to have my mother's wisdom and decided to use her diadem. But I couldn't stand having it on my head, probably because I had not enough to take in the wisdom the diadem was able to convey. I then took it away, because if I couldn't use it I jealously wanted no one else to have it either. I buried it into a tree in a forest in Albania."

"Albania?" Dumbledore asked, perking up. "Dear, did you ever talk about this to anyone?"

"That's why I'm coming forth, Professor, because yes, I did, I'm ashamed to say. The person I talked to was probably not the person I should have told. He was a young Slytherin, very handsome and charming. It must be some fifty odd years ago, he was a prefect then."

"Tom Riddle?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, that was his name, come to think of it. You mentioned it a few times already and it seems he became that horrible Lord Voldemort?"

"He did. Even if he made up the name with a lousy anagram," Harry confirmed.

Hermione and Filius looked at Remus and the three brainiest people in the room nodded. Remus said:

"I think there is a strong possibility that Riddle actually retrieved this diadem. We don't know who he murdered for the Horcrux, but we know that he could have had gone and got it once he left Hogwarts."

"I think so, too. Thank you very much, Madam Ravenclaw, you've helped us immensely. I don't think you need to be ashamed because you told Tom. He's fooled many people in his life, you're only one of his many victims, and a lucky one that you were already a ghost. Those of his victims who were unlucky were all murdered," Hermione said.

"Thank you. I don't think you still need me, do you?"

"No, we don't. But you're welcome to stay anyway."

Hermione got up again to studied the two Ravenclaw objects to the list.

"Would you agree that the diadem is the most probable of these four items? It was lost and Riddle was the only living person to know where it was? He retrieved it, used it for one of his Horcruxes and hid it again. Now, where would he hide it? He has mostly used Hogwarts Founders items, why not Hogwarts? A Horcrux is completely inconspicuous, unless one knows what it is or touches it..."

"Yes, but when would he have deposited it here? I think Professor Dumbledore made it quite clear to him that he's not welcome in this place?" Sirius asked reasonably.

"Oh, but do we know what he did just before he talked to the Professor, Sirius? He might have used the time to hide the object somewhere here at Hogwarts. There are many places where he could have put it in this huge castle and he seemed to have known it quite well," Hermione said.

"Hermione and Harry, do you remember when I talked about that room I once found, when I was in an urgent need of a chamber pot? It was at the Yule Ball last year," Dumbledore remarked.

"Yes..."

"This must be the room that used to be called the 'Room of Requirement'," exclaimed Helena Ravenclaw. "It is charmed to give you exactly the kind of environment you need. All you have to do is pass it three times, concentrating on the kind of room setup you need and you will see a door that leads you to the room. Hundreds of students and professors have found it since it was established in 1018. As far as I remember it was Godric who made it. Mum always suspected him to have some shady things going on in there... he was a bit of a loose character this one, you know..."

"Oh, it has a name? I admit that I didn't know that," Dumbledore said sheepishly. "I didn't even know it can be used consciously, I just found it by chance."

They all laughed about Helena's story, and the two Marauders in the group grinned.

"That sounds like the place we should have discovered, Moony," Sirius said.

"I think so, too."

"Oh no! Hogwarts wouldn't have survived if you, or even worse: the Weasley twins would have found it!" Minerva groaned, but they all laughed.

"Really! I dread to imagine what the brilliant mind of these hooligans might have come up with in such an environment. Notice that I didn't say 'I'm serious'..."

That elicited more laughter, even from the Goblins. The two Marauders didn't even have the decency to blush, they just looked rather smug. Making people laugh was what they liked to do most and what they did best after all. Not even Helena's next comment could rain on their parade:

"There would be something that would have evened out the odds, Professor McGonagall: whatever the room conjures cannot be taken outside of it. If they had created things there they would have had to stay in there. The room can supply you with every book in the library, but you can neither copy it nor take it outside. Whatever they would have come up with - if it was physical it would have stayed in there!"

Once the laughter died down a little, Harry asked the ghost:

"Madam Ravenclaw, you said one had to concentrate on what one looked for in the room. Do we have to guess what Riddle thought of when he possibly hid his Horcrux there?"

"Yes, I think so, but he probably only thought about needing a place to hide something. I can tell you that you will find a room full of old junk and lots of things people wanted to hide."

"Where is the room exactly?" Minerva wanted to know.

"It's on the seventh floor,"

"The seventh floor? There's the entrance to Gryffindor Tower..." Hermione said.

"And my office underneath the West Tower," Flitwick added.

"Yes, exactly – it's actually just around the corner off the Gryffindor Tower entrance, Professor Flitwick. I'm sure Uncle Godric wanted to have it near where his house was. There is a painting with some trolls dressed up in tutus..."

"Ah, yes, I know the one."

"That's where you have to pass by back and forth three times."

"Excellent, we'll try that!" Dumbledore answered, delighted that they seemed to make some progress.

Something in him had begun to stir during the conference. He acknowledged that keeping it all to himself brought him nowhere and that sharing his knowledge with others helped him and them to deduce many more facts than trying to do it all himself. In his fear that too much bad knowledge could escape he had tried to solve the puzzle all alone and so he looked around quite dazzled seeing what good teamwork could achieve. Jealousy was not a trait he knew, therefore he regarded the progress his students and former students had made together with the Goblins and one of his most esteemed colleagues without any contempt at all. In the end they all had the same goal, they wanted to have this Voldemort business off the table and possibly without leaving any traces. It became blatantly clear to him that with all his young friends had achieved it was out of the question that he'd be able to do it alone. He had, in fact, listened with apt reverence to his young student as she took charge of the procedures.

"I think we stand the best chance that the next Horcrux we find might just be Ravenclaw's diadem. Now, on to the next one after that. Are there any other known artefacts that come down from either Salazar Slytherin or Helga Hufflepuff?"

"I don't know of any other from Hufflepuff, but as I just said before Hestia, Kingsley and Nymphadora are busy checking over the site of Tom Riddle's ancestral home – if you could name this shack so – in Little Hangleton. It might be a good idea to join them there. They might find something there."

"Excellent! Could you possibly get hold of Professor Slughorn, Professor Dumbledore? Because the answer he gave to Tom Riddle's question on the Horcruxes might be crucial to find all the Horcruxes he's actually made. Unless you think we can pour some Veritaserum down his throat to confirm we have them all before we blow his lights out?" Hermione asked.

"I think I can. But that doesn't mean that we can't do both of these. We'll certainly try!"

"Good. What do you think, ladies and gentlemen, do we follow Professor Dumbledore to the site of the Gaunts' place now? I think that would be better than going for the diadem in the Room of Requirement – that one won't run away."

"From the memory we saw it might be a good idea to go to the Gaunts', because there we might get some help from Harry's unique gift – he's a Parselmouth after all! We all know that there was much about that gift in these memories. By the way, thank you again for translating, Harry!"

"You're welcome, Sir. Interesting to know that I can still do that, even without the Horcrux in my head."

"I think that something like that, once acquired, could not be taken away anymore. But I doubt that you will pass it on to any children."

Harry blushed and looked at Hermione. She smiled brightly and remarked:

"And even if– we just treat it as another language, albeit a very special one. Who knows, the Slytherin descendants might have used that very same approach, too!"

"For all we know they weren't so bad themselves. Just their later descendants. Well then, let me create a Portkey."

Dumbledore created a Portkey and asked the Goblins:

"Do you wish to follow the procedures, too, gentlemen?"

"No, thank you, I think we have already achieved what we came for, Professor. Everyone seems to be on the same level of knowledge now. I would just like to say a word to Miss Granger here."

"Yes, Sir?"

"Miss Granger, if you ever consider a career in our branch of the commerce I would ask you to please come straight to me, I would be very interested in acquiring your services. Not only for the good of Gringotts Bank, but with an eye on the magical world on the whole. What I have seen from you today was impressive and let me tell you that I would never expect a young Goblin of your age to have even half of your abilities. I shall look forward to follow your career, whichever one you will choose. But you could possibly achieve much of what you dream of in our ranks. In many respects Gringotts is more than a simple bank.

"I am very much aware of the common belief that Goblins only have one interest and that this interest is profit. But we see far more than only monetary profits. With a person such as yourself there is much hope for the magical world in general. Gringotts would love to offer you an opportunity on your path - from which we would **all** profit! It was a pleasure to meet you."

All the adults in the room were completely astounded. Bill looked at Hermione with an even greater respect, because he was probably the only human in the room, who was fully aware of the reach of Ragnok's proclamation. But Hermione remained humble and replied:

"Thank you, Director Ragnok, I shall remember your kind words and in time I might well come back on them. I have some political goals that might match yours. If there were any possibility that we could combine your interest in my services and my interest in your support that would be perfect."

Everyone in the room again watched in amazement as a Goblin actually winked.

"I find that there might indeed be a possibility. Well said, Miss Granger. I wish you all the best in your further education. I bid you all goodbye, ladies and gentlemen; it has been a very entertaining and interesting afternoon!"

Ragnok and Bloodaxe took their leave after that. Dumbledore looked at Hermione, himself with some newfound respect for the young woman. He already had considerable respect for her abilities, just like he had once had for Lily Evans. For many years he had already come to the conclusion that her sacrifice had probably been more than unnecessary and he blamed himself for enforcing it. He followed Hermione's glance to Harry and understood that there was a mutual understanding that had formed in the past few days. He frowned – not at the others, but at himself. It had been less than a week since school had let out and already they had done so much. The wizarding world of Britain would never know what it owed to these two young people in front of him, but he vowed that he would certainly never forget. He studied Harry's face for a short moment and understood further that his choice of a life partner had been made. Dumbledore knew enough of the Potter family history to know that they fell in love once and that was it. They had a penchant to fall for the right partner early on and, once they found it, to stick with their chosen mates. Not only the men were that way, he had known a few daughters in the family to be the same. Had Charlus' great-aunt Carola not died early, who knows – he might have some offspring himself.

"The Portkey will activate as soon as we're ready, may I ask you all to come and touch it? It's a perfectly warm day I don't think we'll need extra clothing."

They all gathered around the old professor and touched the candle he used for the Portkey. Remus managed to tell Harry and Hermione:

"Just start to walk in the air and you won't fall down when we land..."

Both teens were very thankful for that information and started to make the walking movements right away and really, like the adults, they didn't fall down in a heap like they had before the Quidditch world cup.

"Mr. Weasley might have told us that, don't you think, Hermione?"

"Yes, but he might have done it for a little prank, who knows? Not even Gred and Forge knew!"

"True. And they have to have it from somewhere after all, don't they?"

"Exactly."

As they all got ready to walk the steep country lane to the shack, Sirius told the teens:

"Actually, they also may have got the gene from their mother's side. Her younger brothers were almost every inch as bad as the Marauders."

"Agreed. And they had nicely prepared the grounds for our arrival when they left Hogwarts just before we started," Remus replied, grinning.

Dumbledore smiled. He vividly remembered the Prewett brothers, Fabian and Gideon. He had often thought that the Weasley twins must have had their lust for mischief from their uncles, even if they had never known them.

"You know, mum never talks about them. Or only to say that she never got over their deaths. We have no idea about how they were at all, but if you can tell me some stories I'd like to hear them," Bill threw in.

"Quite a few. We met them in the Order and the Death Eaters all feared them, believe me. It took five of them to kill Giddy and Fab. The two were really magnificent. They might have been responsible for at least some of your mum's temperament. I remember that they teased her quite often, even if they only told us. I didn't know your mother personally before, only your father. He's distantly related to the Blacks."

"Very distantly, I hope, Sirius. Nothing against you, on the contrary, but your family is a whole different kettle of fish!"

Sirius laughed and admitted:

"I agree with you on that one and thank you for not throwing me into their mix. There are a few reasonable ones, but most of them were despicable. All gone now, I presume. But we're not related that distantly. My great aunt Cedrella married your grandfather Septimus. She was cast out of the family for that. Well, she was burned out of the tapestry, anyway... probably by my mother who had this nasty habit."

"Ah! That's where aunt Muriel has it from. She's a right old hag! You wouldn't think she's my father's sister!"

Sirius laughed again.

"It's in the genes, I'm afraid. Somewhere deep inside we're all rotten blood. Almost all that is. James' mum was another great-aunt of mine and she was perfectly fine. I miss her as much as I miss James. She was more my mum than her niece. If it hadn't been for Auntie Dorea I'd have never made it! She and my mum's brother Alphard, they were the good ones in the family I knew. Oh, and my cousin Andromeda of course. Interestingly they didn't burn Dorea from the tapestry. You're also related to me on the Prewett's side, your grandmother Lucretia was my aunt on my father's side."

Before further discussions could be held they arrived at the end of the crooked, derelict lane, where they were encountered by three witches and wizards in full attack mode. Dumbledore called:

"It's me, Kingsley, you can relax! I'm bringing reinforcements."

They caught up with the three Aurors, who relaxed considerably. Hestia and Tonks both looked deeply frustrated and Kingsley spoke for them:

"Good to see you, Professor, we were just about to give up... there's no safe way to approach that shack!"

"We may have a possible solution here. Do you already know everyone here? Let me introduce you to Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. They have just revealed to us what they already found out about the matter. It looks like we're down to two Horcruxes, dears, they have been very successful in finding three further pieces in cooperation with the Gringotts Goblins."

"Wow! Didn't you think he would have made five or six of them? That would reduce our research by more than half!"

"It does. As you know Harry already destroyed the diary and the snake. They were then able to find two further ones at Gringotts, where they had been stored. The third one probably came to be accidentally, and because Voldemort didn't know that, he produced a new one as soon as he was able to cast again. We have now deduced what to look for at Hogwarts and that leaves us with the possibility that we might find one here."

"Oh, there's one here alright, we could sense it, but we can't get close to the darned shack. It's protected by something we can't determine. We get weird results on all magic detection charms. I'm just glad that this place is so off the usual magical ways, no one would probably stumble over it that didn't already look for it. I'm pretty sure that anyone who got too close would encounter something really nasty!" Hestia explained.

"I would guess it's because the Gaunts had very little magic left to them apart from one gift: the ability to speak Parseltongue. They have faithfully handed that one down, and they used it for almost all of their spells. Voldemort did the same later on," Harry explained.

"We'd need a **Parselmouth**?" Hestia asked, shocked. "Now we'll never get close!"

"Relax, Hestia. One of the things Voldemort left in Harry when he cast his Killing Curse on him was the ability to speak to snakes. Harry will be our help here!"

Dumbledore turned to Harry:

"Harry, I take responsibility for what you do until you turn seventeen, but I think we can safely claim not to treat you favourably when I remove the Trace from your wand now. Would you kindly hold it out for me?"

"Here it is, Sir."

Dumbledore tapped Harry's wand with his own and incanted a few short words quietly. There was a short white flash and Dumbledore nodded, satisfied.

"I know that you will not misuse your privilege. Hermione, your wand, please..."

Hermione held out her wand as well and Dumbledore removed her Trace, too. She thanked him politely and promised not to misuse that privilege either.

"Though my parents certainly will be glad to see that I have actually learned something proper in the past four years, not only hear about it. They do like to take part of my education."

"Very good. Now then, let's have a look at your readings, Kingsley, Hestia and Nymphadora."

Tonks winced at hearing her first name, but they recounted their poor findings so far. Harry listened and then said:

"Do you think it would help if I used the spells the Aurors used to reveal magic, but use them in Parseltongue, Professor?"

"It is certainly worth a try, Harry, go right ahead."

"This here is the furthest we can go, Harry," said Hestia. Then she added: "Sorry, I may call you Harry, may I?"

"That's fine with me, Madam!"

"Then call me Hestia, please, Harry. I could tell you a few stories about your mum some time, we were quite good friends."

"I'll gladly take you up on that offer, Hestia. Would you like to come and visit us for a dinner some time in the next weeks?"

"I'd love to, Harry!"

"Great! Now, can you guys show me the spells I'd have to use to reveal curses? I'll give a try then..."

Kingsley and Hestia instructed him in the spells they used and Harry tried to cast them in Parseltongue. One of them came up with a reading so clear Harry had to step back a few steps. He stared at the pile of house that was lying there, with an open mouth.

"Professor, this spell shows me the hut exactly as it was when that Ogden fellow visited... still a hovel, but not all broken down."

"An illusion then."

Dumbledore showed Harry a few more spells that might help him getting over the threshold. Harry used them all until he found one that responded to the Parseltongue version. Hermione had a notebook out and started to note down the spells that worked in Parseltongue, with the help of Flitwick and Bill. Remus and Dumbledore kept feeding spells to Harry, which he faithfully tried out until they finally found the one that held the shack captive. The illusion fell first. Then the magical barrier fell. Finally they could approach and Dumbledore reminded Harry:

"I think it might well be the ring that Marvolo Gaunt wore in the memory we saw from Bob Ogden. Do you remember how it looked?"

"Yes, it had a crest on it..."

"It did."

"It was a gold ring with a black stone set into it, a bit like a signet ring..."

"Every bit a signet ring, Harry, perfect. Let's try the easiest method first – "

"_Accio Peverell's ring!" _Harry hissed.

It had worked on Hufflepuff's cup as well as the locket after all and there it came – soaring out of the hovel like a bullet. Seeker reflexes ready Harry wanted to catch it, but Kingsley pulled down his arm.

"I wouldn't touch that before it's checked over, Harry!"

"Oh! Yes, that might be right."

Kingsley pulled out protective gloves and said:

"Here, wear these and summon it again!"

Harry repeated the spell and was able to catch the ring in his glove protected hand. Dumbledore was attracted to the ring and tried to pick it up, but again it was Kingsley, who pulled him back. Dumbledore trembled and looked at the ring with a predatory look, like it was the only thing he had ever wished to possess.

"Albus?"

"I need to get away from it, Kingsley. This ring is definitely a Horcrux. Can't you all feel its compulsion?"

"Like we'd want nothing but put it on our finger? It's hellish!" Minerva asked, beginning to tremble just like Dumbledore.

Kingsley and Hestia led them both away. Sirius and Harry couldn't feel the compulsion much for some reason, so Sirius offered to retrieve the Goblin made sword that had been loaned to them. He was off in a flash and back within two minutes. Harry laid the ring down as soon as Kingsley had restrained those who felt the compulsion the strongest. Sirius crushed the little ring with the tip of the sword. They listened to the scream that was eerily familiar in the meantime, thus giving them the proof that the Horcrux in the ring was gone. Sirius and Remus were also able to remove the compulsion to wear it from the ring and then Kingsley released his 'prisoners'.

Dumbledore took a deep breath. He looked at the ring that Harry repaired effortlessly. Harry put it in his pocket and asked:

"Is there anything about this ring that makes it special, Professor? Apart from the fact that it came down from Slytherin."

"Yes, but I don't think it will do the world any good if we use it. It spoke to me because I have some unsolved business with a dead relative. That's all I'm going to say about it. Just keep it as a memory, Harry. You are just as entitled to it as Voldemort, because you, too, are a descendent of a Peverell, albeit a brother of the one who owned this one."

"There are a few of those buried in Godric's Hollow," Remus remarked quietly.

"Yes, there are, Remus. Let's return to Hogwarts. Our business here is concluded."

"Professor, does that mean that I'm an heir of Slytherin after all," Harry asked.

"Yes, Harry, it does indeed. But, you know, there are many of them up and down the country, direct or indirect, just as there are many of the descendants of the other three founders still in existence. The further back you go in history the more common ancestors you'll find with other people in this world. I wouldn't put much weight on it," Dumbledore replied with a smile.

Harry started to laugh.

"All that anguish in second year when I could have just pointed out that there were so many people probably related to Slytherin, I can't believe I did that to myself!" he wheezed.

Hermione thought a bit differently and found herself unable to laugh about it. She thought that Dumbledore might have done a bit better by telling Harry back then that he shared that honour of being a Slytherin heir with many others and he might have helped a lot by reminding the whole school. She kept her scowl to herself though.

They took the Portkey, which Dumbledore activated as soon as everyone touched it. As they returned to the conference room, Minerva looked at the watch. It was already tea time, but she asked:

"Are we in for another little adventure before dinner? I invite you all to stay for dinner to relax from this excitement."

"I think we should take on the last one – if it is the last one. Do you think Voldie will be put out if he finds out we didn't need more than a week to take all of his carefully constructed Horcruxes down?" Hermione said and grinned.

"And how – can we rub it under his ugly non-existent nose, Professor? I want to see him put down like a rabid dog afterwards..." Harry asked excitedly.

"We'll see how he looks. If this is the last Horcrux then yes, I'm tempted to let you have a few words with the being. You deserve a good gloating shot at him. It won't take more than a mild Reducto curse to finish him off. A first year could do it," Dumbledore promised.

Sirius was actually astonished that Albus would allow that to Harry, but he threw in:

"Fudge would like to be present, Albus."

"Oh, he can be there no problem. But the test for the Horcruxes we'll do without him."

"We could repeat it for him, then he'd believe us completely," Hermione suggested.

"That is an excellent suggestion, Miss Granger."

The whole group, now extended by the three Aurors, relocated to the corridor on the seventh floor, where they tried different phrasings to get the same Room of Requirement Riddle had received to hide the Horcrux. Finally it was Hermione who got the right words:

"I need the place where everything is hidden," she murmured as she walked into the door that came up she exclaimed:

"Ah, this must be it! Look at all that stuff in here!"

The others followed her inside and stared. Hermione stared as well at the incredible amount of things that had been 'hidden' in this huge room.

"Think of all we could find in here! Hundreds of years of hidden things! This is great!" she cried.

"Yeah, but right now we're looking for the diadem!"

They tried the Accio charm, but this time it didn't help. Obviously the diadem had been protected against such charms. They divided the group in twos and one group of three. Remus decided to accompany Harry and Hermione.

"When you find it, shoot sparks or send a Patronus message to alert the rest of us, will you?" Dumbledore ordered, before he took one path in the vast jungle that was the Room of Hidden Things.

"We will!"

Every group split and went into a different direction. After a good hour of searching Harry and Hermione were the ones to spot the diadem, which sat between other junk on the board of a bookcase. Remus let loose the sparks and repeated them until they were all together. Kingsley cast the detection spell.

"It definitely is a Horcrux. Sirius, that sword, please! I'd love to finish off one of these horrible things myself – it's a small and petty revenge, but the bastard did kill my parents!" said Harry.

Without any further word Sirius pulled out the sword and handed it to Harry. It only took two further seconds for them to hear the scream for what they hoped would be the last time. Hermione repaired the diadem and graciously handed it over to Filius.

"Here, Professor, I believe this should go back to where it probably came from, Ravenclaw tower. I don't know if it still has its original function, but it will make a beautiful decoration anyway."

"Would you like to try it on, Miss Granger?" asked the diminutive professor.

She looked at it, longingly, Harry thought. Then she looked around the others to see whether they agreed. Dumbledore and McGonagall nodded, so Hermione slowly lifted the jewel on her head and placed it there. Only to pull it back a few seconds later with a smile and an: "Oh!"

"Well?"

"It said: the greatest wisdom you can gain is to take this item off your head. I happen to agree. There's no real wisdom to be gained from an object like this, wisdom is experience and experience is only gained through studying and applying the learned knowledge."

"I would think that you are already wise beyond your years, Miss Granger. Thank you very much for restoring this item to Ravenclaw. We will replace it where it belongs: in the trophy room! Everyone will be able to see it, but no one will be able to use it," Filius said.

"And the two of you will definitely receive a recommendation for special services to the school. We'll make sure that Tom Riddle's medal will be destroyed and his misdeeds recorded in the annals!" said Minerva.

"Well, then there is one last thing to do before we can relax at dinner. We will have to relocate to the Heart of Hogwarts though," said Dumbledore.

They found the way back to the door and left the Room of Hidden Things behind. They followed Albus to the Heart of Hogwarts and he let them enter before him. Like the night of the third task he told them:

"I am the only person who can do any magic in this area. This is a part of Hogwarts that's only revealed to the active headmaster or headmistress. We can admit other people, but only my magical signature will be recognised and tolerated in here. Therefore I would recommend putting away all of your wands until we leave."

They all complied and on they went to the cell that held the feeble form of Voldemort. As they entered they noticed that it was lying stiff as a board on the cot. Dumbledore revived it and immediately it started to screech. But then Voldemort's glance spotted the diadem and the screech became a scream. Harry grinned.

"You thought you were very clever, didn't you, Tom?"

"Don't call me that name! Where did you get this?"

"We didn't only get 'this', Tom, we got all of them. We found and destroyed all of your Horcruxes. The diary that I destroyed in my second year, Slytherin's locket, that Sirius' brother stole from wherever you stashed it. He rather died than let you keep your Horcrux, did you know that? And the cup that used to belong to Helga Hufflepuff..."

Harry stopped and they watched Tom's reaction. He sank together a bit more with each item Harry named, but when he didn't continue, Voldemort relaxed visibly. Harry smirked.

"Ah yes, let's not forget Slytherin's ring that came down through the Peverell family. And that snake, what's her name? Nagini, isn't it? Well, I killed her with Cedric, right where you brought us with the Portkey. Not a good idea to hide a Horcrux in a living being, nothing easier than killing the beast to get rid of the content."

The slimy baby-like thing sank together. That was it. He knew that his end had arrived. And Dumbledore knew that the horrible creature didn't know that Harry himself had a Horcrux planted in his head and thought everything was gone.

"Finally, you never knew that you made me a Horcrux, did you, Tom? It was certainly accidental, but my curse scar hid the dastardly evil thing. It didn't manage to make me evil like you though, Tom, and the Goblins were kind enough to extract it. We destroyed it as well. That's it, you're done for. You can look death in the eye now, Tom, we only wait for the Minister to arrive soon and then we'll send you to hell, where you belong..."

"You would murder me? You don't have it in you, Potter!" screeched Voldemort.

"Oh, you'll find that I have it perfectly in me. You murdered my parents after all, there's plenty of rage within me to kill you. But it won't be that part of me that eliminates you. It will be my love and affection for all the people still living that will take care of that. They will be able to breathe free again with the menace of the despicable Tom Riddle gone. Besides, this thing you are right now - it bears nothing human inside, I don't think it will be any different than scorching a little rodent or some other vermin..."

"If you kill me then you'll kill all those who are carrying my mark!" Voldemort screeched.

"I think you put entirely too much belief in your own power, Moldieshorts, no way that that's going to happen," said Sirius.

"Marked Death Eaters? And if they die, tell me, Tom, would that really be a loss to the world? It would just show us who and who isn't a criminal who followed you. Though I can see where you liked having them crawling in the dust at your feet, all those proud purebloods, when you yourself were a halfblood like me, even worse so, your father was a Muggle, after all. You can see that I've done my homework, I know about you what's there to be known. Your mother wasn't a witch, Tom, she was as good as a squib. Slightly hypocrite of you, isn't it? But it must have been very satisfactory for you to watch the purebloods crawl before you..."

Voldemort was now intelligent enough to realise that it was better to be quiet. Dumbledore put him in a full body bind again and said:

"That is it, Tom. You have until the Minister has time to come up to Hogwarts before we will eliminate you."

Voldemort knew that there was nothing he could do about it anymore. He couldn't get out, he couldn't do any magic in this place (he had of course tried to do something wandlessly, but had to learn that it was impossible) and he had no way of feeding himself in this form. Unless he could do the ritual in the next few days he would perish anyway, but he wasn't going to tell them that. He couldn't even close his eyes in defeat; Dumbledore's full body bind really was a full body bind. Voldemort was able to see, hear and smell, but he couldn't talk and couldn't do magic. He resigned. All his scheming had been for naught, he now understood. From their reaction to his own he could easily gage that they now knew that they had caught all of his Horcruxes. He was already weak as it was and only hoped that the full body bind on him would allow him to die before they killed him.

The party went back out to the main hall of Hogwarts and Dumbledore happily dispatched an owl to the Ministry to ask Fudge to join them for dinner at Hogwarts if he could, because they would show him how the greatest evil of the past century would be taken care of. They had hardly sat down for dinner when Fudge already came waddling into the Great Hall. Dumbledore calmly invited the Minister to eat with them.

"Is it true? You can really kill this monstrosity that's down there?" Fudge asked and looked thoroughly relieved.

"Yes, it is true. You can witness it later on. What's left of Tom Riddle could be eliminated by an untrained first year now."

"Thank Merlin! And we needn't say anything about it at all?"

"Nothing at all," Dumbledore confirmed.

"Oh, thank goodness! I couldn't sleep ever since that task of the Triwizard Tournament! I was constantly afraid he'd get out of there somehow!"

"How? He can't do magic and he'd have to be able to do that if he wanted out of there. The area only recognises the headmaster or headmistress's magical signature. He was utterly unable to move, let alone do magic and I force-fed him some weak adder's poison to keep him just barely alive. We wouldn't even need to kill him, I could just leave the feeding and within about two days he'd be done for."

"Oh, no, no, I do want to see him terminated," Fudge protested.

Harry grinned. For once he agreed with the pompous Minister. Immediately after dinner, the ensemble of people who were currently at Hogwarts trooped down to the Heart of Hogwarts and once they arrived, Dumbledore went to fetch the creature out of his cell. There simply wasn't enough space in there. The Heart of Hogwarts consisted of much more than this row of cells. They stepped out of it though and brought Voldemort back to the Great Hall. Dumbledore never even woke the monster up, he just offered:

"Who would like to do the honours? Harry has first dibs, but I would understand, if you didn't want to kill, dear boy."

"I'm not overly keen on it, but I still would like to do it, Professor. He's done so much bad to me personally that it has become personal years ago!"

"Very well. You have learned the Reductor curse a while ago, as I know. I suggest you use that."

"I was going to use that anyway."

Harry took a deep breath and stepped up. Hermione followed and held his left hand tightly. She didn't want to see it, but she thought she had to. It was the moment that would liberate her love to a life free of this monster. Harry was a creature of love, he needed the love she could give him, and it was that belief that gave him the strength to cast the curse. Voldemort felt it right through the full body-bind. If not for it his eyes would have widened in fear as he saw Harry gather his strength and lift the wand.

Another deep breath and a whispered: "Reducto."

The last thing Voldemort realised was the immense power behind the whispered spell. They others watched as the spell hit the creature on the ground. It blasted the crumpled being to smithereens, even though it had been spoken in a low voice. No scream followed this time. And no spirit left the remains. There wasn't much left and what was left Harry vanished from the floor and the walls with a simple "Evanesco". Another spell he whispered.

Dumbledore asked:

"Would any of you mind if I would obliviate you all of the knowledge of the Heart of Hogwarts? It shouldn't be known outside of this place, because it is always a very last refuge. It is the only thing I would take away."

No one minded, upon which Dumbledore proceeded to relieve them all of the knowledge. It was a happy party that followed and even though most of them were dog-tired they were much too exhilarated to think of sleep. It was near midnight before any of them returned home.

Hermione called her parents and informed them in a few words of what they'd done the whole day and that she would fall dead asleep in Seaside Manor.

"You sound very tired, dear, just go to sleep and tell us more when we come tomorrow!"

"Thanks Mum. Goodnight to you and Daddy!"

"I'll tell him. Goodnight, darling!"

Sirius and Remus went up the stairs, Harry and Hermione following right behind. On the first landing Sirius turned around and hugged Harry.

"Well done, Harry! You were absolutely great today. I'm afraid that we might have to watch out for Fudge in the near future, because he probably got a good eyeful of your real power today and will fear you, but his time will come sooner rather than later, because there will have to be changes in this magical world this time! Thank you very much for all that you've done for us, Harry. It's a shame that the remaining world won't know anything of it, but you can now enjoy the rest of your school years in peace."

Then he turned to Hermione:

"And thanks and all hail to you, my dear girl! Not only for what you did for Harry, who wouldn't be where he is without you, but especially for what you've done for the rest of the world. I feel great respect for you!"

He hugged her tightly as well, which she gladly returned.

"Thank you, Sirius. I was happy to do everything for Harry – or for you for that matter. We gladly do what we do for those we love, even when it's not so easy sometimes. Some things were easier than others, but I suppose that's how life is."

"Exactly. Good night, you two sweet ones!"

"Good night, Sirius! Good night, Remus!"

They took a very quick shower, which they shared to get to bed a bit quicker, and seeing Hermione completely naked gave Harry a source of much better dreams than he might have had after killing something living. He had to overcome his own modesty, but found that he didn't mind when Hermione casually reminded him:

"To see your body is as exciting for me as it's for you to see mine, Harry, don't forget that. Girls are as sexually inclined as boys, believe me. At least I am, and last I checked I was a girl..."

Harry grinned. That she was a girl was quite obvious he thought, but he could follow her reasoning. They washed each other, but even the rush of hormones that caused didn't keep them awake for very long. The whole family slept easy that night, and they slept in. The sun was already high in the sky when they woke up. Hermione lifted her head from her pillow and felt very nice and warm. She pushed the duvet a bit down and looked up. That was when she noticed that she wasn't in her own bed, but in Harry's!

"Oops," she said, but didn't mind at all.

Harry stirred next to her and in waking he realised that he wasn't alone in his bed. But it felt so good! He had never slept as well as this night, of that he was sure. And then he found the reason for that fact right next to him. She smiled through the massive tangle of her hair, then shifted a part of that hair of hers to one side and bent forward to kiss him soundly on the mouth. He stretched for a moment and then took her in his arms to kiss her more thoroughly. Now that Hermione had shown him to be more open, he knew that this would be welcome. And boy did her naked body feel good against his own!

"Oh my! I never want to sleep alone anymore, Hermione!"

"That was the best night I've ever spent, even though we didn't do anything but sleep, Harry! I agree. Though I'm afraid that Hogwarts will keep us separate again."

"Yeah, I know. But we'll find opportunities, even if I have to smuggle you in every night under my Invisibility Cloak."

She smiled. That would be a rule she was ready to break!

"Let's get up though, I'm really hungry and look forward to one of Dobby's delicious breakfasts!"

"Good idea."

Hermione looked for her clothes, and found them clean and folded on the bench of the window seat. She grinned. That meant that Dobby had been busy at night. She knew it would be useless to tell him not to overwork himself on her behalf; he would still do it, because whatever he did he did for Harry. If someone was around Harry he would do the work for them and still mostly do it with Harry on his mind. She was inclined to add Dobby to Colin Creevey's member list in his Harry Potter fan club. That thought made her grin as she got dressed.

"What are you grinning about?" Harry asked.

"Only some silly thoughts about Dobby. He's been by to get our clothes clean last night, look!"

"I'm not surprised. We won't be able to stop him from doing his work, he loves it too much."

"No, we won't. That's just what I thought about. And that whatever he does he is doing it for you, he loves you that much. Then I thought it would be fun to add him to the member list in Colin's fan club."

Even Harry laughed about that.

"And you know what? Dobby would probably love to join."

A shock awaited them at breakfast. Remus was the first coming down and he absentmindedly picked up the Daily Prophet as he sat down for breakfast. Dobby had served it inside, because the weather looked a bit grey outside. Rain was expected for later that day.

The first sip of tea went right through his nose. He called:

"**Sirius! Harry! Hermione! Come on down, quick!**"

The other family members came rushing downstairs and Sirius asked:

"What's going on? Are you alright, love?"

"I'm perfectly fine. Here! Come read that!"

Instead of showing them, he read aloud:

"Mysterious deaths reported! An unusual number of deaths were reported last night starting at about 9.30pm. They had occurred throughout the British Isles, and all of the reported deceased were known to have belonged to You-Know-Who's followers. They were brought in to St. Mungo's where the healers who autopsied them strangely found one common thing: all the deceased carried a tattoo on their left arms, which was burned deep into their flesh. The tattoo is the same representation that magical folk had come to fear like nothing else until it came to a sudden halt on Halloween 1981, when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (but hyphenated to death by the idiotic crew of the Daily Prophet, Remus added) was vanquished by The-Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter.

"What then had happened? No one can even guess and the healers at St. Mungo's are stumped. Aurors were called in to investigate, but have so far not found anything, only that there was not one person among the dead that was not once a member of the Death Eaters. The press was informed at a press conference, called by the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge at about two o'clock this morning.

"He stated that the death of so many Death Eaters in one single moment had to be connected to their Dark Mark and that it possibly meant that You-Know-Who had not been as dead as the public thought when he lost his powers in 1981.

"It must mean that You-Know-Who has found his final end somehow and that the connection he shared with the Death Eaters was the cause of their deaths. We shall investigate in that line of reasoning some more. Maybe we can learn something more about this very secret connection."

"The public will want to know more, because among the deaths were such upstanding people as Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Nestor Avery, Richard and Elinor Parkinson and many others. They were all acquitted in many trials after the Fall of You-Know-Who, most of them because they claimed to be under Imperius curses."

Sirius, Remus, Harry and Hermione were all stunned! And they were aware that obviously up and down the country there would not be one magical person who wasn't as stunned as they were. Harry immediately thought of all the orphans and half-orphans that night created. He had tears in his eyes, because at once, he sought the fault for that in himself. They hadn't believed Voldemort when he had said they would die! Hermione immediately pulled him close and said in a determined voice:

"This is **not** your fault, Harry. Even though you caused it by killing Voldemort they brought it onto themselves when they became his slaves. If you ask me that was wonderfully sweet justice, which Voldemort has brought onto his Death Eaters. They've now eaten the bloody death they have sown over so many people. Harry, they have got what they deserved, nothing less. Think of all the horrible things people like Malfoy did even after they were acquitted! He didn't change his attitude once he had escaped the Azkaban sentence! He has done so much damage that it hurt the magical society more than they are even aware of. And he certainly wasn't the only one!"

They kept listening to the WWN the whole day, while they finished off some more renovation work in the house. The death toll on the Death Eaters rose and reached 83 reported dead by the afternoon, including all of the ones at Azkaban. Many of them were still found and Fudge had given out the order to the Aurors to search the country actively for anyone who had ever been suspected to be a Death Eater, especially the ones that were only suspected but never prosecuted. The magical death register was consulted and 96 persons were registered as having died at the exact same time: 9.27pm.

Harry had stopped crying after Hermione's little speech. Yes, he agreed, most of them deserved what they got and Sirius only had one comment:

"Problem mostly solved."

"Except that they leave behind kids like Draco, who believed all their rubbish."

"Yes, but even he might now see that it doesn't pay to become a criminal."

"We'll see. He doesn't think that these were criminals. He firmly believes that they had the right to do what they did, even if they tortured just for fun. And he won't see that it was actually Voldemort who caused this."

Sirius was the head of the House of Black now and he went to Grimmauld Place to see who looked after the last remnants of the extended family. There were two more Black relatives that had died beyond Narcissa and Bellatrix, not that he would miss them. But mostly he had to pick up the pieces for Draco, who was now a minor short of a guardian. Sirius called Andromeda, who stepped in, because she was Draco's closest relative now. She found a shocked 15 year old at Malfoy Mansion, who was almost catatonic.

"Draco? I'm your aunt, Andromeda Tonks-Black. Would you like to come with me? I will probably be appointed as your guardian until you reach majority."

Draco looked up and was so distraught that he forgot to sneer.

"They were sitting there, and then they just simply grabbed their wrists, fell down and were dead! How could that happen? No one was in here, no one killed them, they weren't ill, nothing, they simply died!"

"We can explain, Draco, but you have to come with me. Could you pack clothes for a few days? You can't stay here until all the formalities are done, and you are still a minor. Your mother and other aunt are dead, I'm the closest relative you have now."

She was astonished that she could simply lead him to his room, where he packed some clothes and his homework into his school trunk. She levitated the trunk out and said:

"Come. They're at the morgue anyway and we'll have to prepare for a funeral."

He nodded. Andi knew that it was only the shock of their sudden deaths that kept him so downcast; his usual nasty self would be coming out again sooner or later. But maybe she could give him some food for thought in the meantime, and she planned for that in any case. She took him to her London townhouse, which she had inherited from her uncle Alphard. It was another nice, big house full of art nouveau and art deco furniture and decoration. She set Draco up in one of the nicest guest bedrooms and said:

"Make yourself comfortable, Draco, Sirius will be by in a moment and then we expect your family barrister and will hear what your parents' wills say. The official will reading will only take place later on, but you should not be surprised. If any guardians are advised in the will you will be handed over to them after the reading, should they still be alive after this purge. Until then you can live here."

Draco nodded and dropped down on the bed, turning away from Andi. She let him be, but said:

"Dinner is at six down in the dining room. If you call for Iggy, he will show you the way. He is to be treated with respect, Draco."

The day was hectic and Sirius was absent for much of it. He had advised the Aurors that the Dementors could just bury his relatives in Azkaban as they usually did and that he didn't want to have them in the family grave. Not in his anyway and there were no Lestranges left at all now. He grinned. Actually he had grinned throughout the day, ever since Remus read the article in the Daily Prophet, because he was even more convinced than Hermione that the former Death Eaters had reaped what they sowed.

The Ministry was in uproar though. Over twenty of the deceased had worked for the Ministry, and some of them in high ranks. Almost as many had been members of the Wizengamot. Everyone had to buckle down and start to clean up immediately, but that was when the Minister learned how many reliable people he actually had in his Ministry. However, it was interesting to learn that most of the ones he had trusted were now dead. He was lucky that they didn't start to suspect him when, late in the afternoon, news came in that his Senior Undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge had also been found dead in her flat in Hogsmeade.

Another less loudly proclaimed death had taken place in Spinner's End, where a former Potions Master had still tried to cut out the Dark Mark from his flesh, but had then bled to death. He didn't leave any mourners behind, apart from Dumbledore, who was sorry to lose his Potions teacher.

Three school governors also died. Dumbledore couldn't but celebrate the fact that the school would only profit from getting some fresh blood into its governing body. Maybe he could now get some more progressive classes offered that would finally achieve what so far had only been hollow words: more house unity and the rivalry reduced to the Quidditch and the House Cups.

All in all, this was the worst day that ever happened for the pureblood faction of the magical population in Britain. Harry took refuge in the thought that from this day on there would be progress possible, that there would be reforms in the political handling as well as the society. Hermione smiled through the day, because for her it meant that the high society had been throttled and would now have to mend itself. All the purebloods that were left now would not be in the way for the much larger rest of the magical population and with time the people who were now still underdogs for the most part would build up the new elite.


End file.
